Presidential Immunity: What Would Plato Say?
Even if Donald Trump's idea of absolute presidential immunity is absurd, immunity itself is not, as Plato understood.
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- May 30
- 7 min
What we are doing when we argue with strangers online
Polarisation and division plays out over social media. Tragically, it rarely delivers the sense of belonging that leads us to argue online.
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- Feb 4
- 4 min
Sex Robots: the ethical dilemma
TW: sexual violence Sex robots, which are artificially intelligent (AI) technology encased in physical bodies that resemble human...
282
- Jan 28
- 6 min
Beyond Immediate Gains: The Ethics of Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
The need for an Israel/Hamas ceasefire transcends the immediacy of political gains when anchored by longtermist moral imperatives.
452
- Jan 14
- 9 min
When consent is not enough
Sadomasochism shares many features with domestic violence. Is it possible to legitimately consent to either?
380
- Dec 17, 2023
- 5 min
Will AI replace fashion designers, or help them?
AI models known as GANs are now being used in the fashion industry. But can they attain human levels of creativity?
232
- Dec 3, 2023
- 5 min
Javier Milei's anarcho-capitalism is incoherent
In a surprising turn of events, Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” has been declared the winner of Argentina’s recent...
562
- Nov 19, 2023
- 5 min
(Im)moral hazard: the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank
Former FED chairman Paul Volcker once said that “about every ten years we have the greatest crisis in 50 years”. 2023, it seems, will not...
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- Jun 4, 2023
- 4 min
High Risk, Low Reward: A Challenge to the Astronomical Importance of Existential Risk Mitigation
Derek Parfit (1984) asks us to consider two scenarios. In the first, a war kills 99% of the world population. This event, Parfit urges,...
397
- Mar 31, 2023
- 9 min
A Socialist Guide To Effective Altruism
Effective altruism is a movement that believes we should help others as much as possible. This may sound like a bland statement of the...
3,143
- Mar 24, 2023
- 5 min
Responsible AI: Responsible to Whom?
How the profit motive stages a theatre of ethics washing in Artificial Intelligence There is a burgeoning wave of start-ups and tech...
392
- Mar 18, 2023
- 8 min
How Feminist is OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a content subscription platform that gives content creators the space to upload sexy (although not necessarily explicit)...
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- Dec 8, 2022
- 6 min
The Magic We Owe The Future
2022 has been a rollercoaster for ‘longtermism’. This is the idea that to do the most good, we need to help not only people who exist ...
553
- Dec 4, 2022
- 7 min
Why implicit bias is not (just) in the head, and why that matters
Meet Professor P. Professor P seems to be the prototypical egalitarian: she is engaged in anti-racist and feminist activities, explicitly...
415
- Nov 27, 2022
- 7 min
The Banality of Good: On Why Millionaires Love Effective Altruism
Why does the moral philosophy of effective altruism attract so many millionaires, including Sam Bankman-Fried, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel?
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- Nov 20, 2022
- 6 min
Can Data Save Us From Ourselves?
Epistemic Uncertainty and Data-Driven Policy Making Policy driven by data and science represents the gold standard amongst politicians of...
336
- Nov 13, 2022
- 6 min
In defence of party democracy
Many complain about the power of party members to select leaders. I argue that, in fact, they should be more empowered.
382
- Oct 23, 2022
- 7 min
Iran in transition – what is other nations’ “global” moral responsibility?
As protests continue to unfold in Iran, Hossein Dabbagh asks: what responsibilities do international citizens have towards Iranians?
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- Oct 16, 2022
- 8 min
Abortion and the Natural Rights Tradition
In the recent Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, the majority...
980
- Oct 9, 2022
- 5 min
The Queen is dead
The Elizabethan age is over. Like when Nietzche declared that ‘God is dead’, we Brits face an existential moment that is ours to define
536
- Oct 1, 2022
- 4 min
What should universities do about now?
What is the purpose of universities? Do they exist to solve practical problems, or for some higher ideal?
539
- Sep 25, 2022
- 7 min
Can a machine be conscious?
Blake Lemoine, a software engineer who has worked at Google for seven years, was assigned to a project testing LaMDA, one of the...
434
- Sep 21, 2022
- 5 min
How the monarchy dominates us
Why do republican political philosophers think that monarchy makes us unfree, even if kings and queens never use their powers.
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- Aug 7, 2022
- 7 min
Freedom and Freaktopia: re-reading the past to re-imagine the future
Through his work on the Victorian freak show, and ideas from disability studies and philosophy, John Woolf explores the idea of 'freaktopia'
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