Presenters: Professor Daniel Dennett

2012 Barry Taylor and David Lewis Philosophy Lecture: Free Will as Moral Competence

Do recent discoveries of neuroscience prove that we have no free will? Some neuroscientists claim that free will is an illusion. But according to Dennett, this claim rests on a mistaken understanding of free will and moral practices.

Presenters: Professor Robert Shepherd, Andrew Alexandra

How far would you go to be better than you are?

Medical bionics have improved dramatically over the last 60 years and will eventually be able outperform functional limbs and organs. This will give us an opportunity for physical and mental enhancement and raise unprecedented legal, social and ethical issues.

Professor Robert Shepherd will provide a snapshot of currently available and trialled technologies, as well as a glimpse into the future. Andrew Alexandra will examine the philosophical and ethical implications of these possibilities on the individual and on society.

Presenters: Professor Avner Offer

Do bad ethics lead to bad economic outcomes? Bad ethics are defined hedonically as the infliction of pain for private advantage. The infliction of pain is often justified by "Just World Theories", which state that everyone gets what they deserve. Market liberalism (and its theoretical underpinning in neoclassical economics) is a Just World Theory of this kind. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments Adam Smith explains the reluctance to inflict pain as being motivated by reciprocity. His account depends on an assumption of innate virtue, and a more realistic one is developed on the basis of signalling. As an example, the ethical and economic failure of the American health system c. 1970-2010 is described in terms of the shift in policy norms from the medical ones of "first do no harm" to the market-liberal norm of "let the buyer beware" (caveat emptor).

Dr Gillian Whiteley, visiting UK artist, curator and author of ‘Junk: Art and politics of Trash’ (based at Loughborough University School of the Arts), will introduce a series of talks in conjunction with the Regimes of Value exhibition.

In this lecture, artists Ryan Foote, Ash Keating and Slow Art Collective, will join Dr Gillian Whiteley and Jodi Newcombe to discuss a range of conceptual, ethical and practical approaches undertaken by artists who engage with or maintain an environmentally sustainable art practice.

Presenters: Professor Mary Luckhurst

Increasingly, professional actors are required to enact real people on stage and on screen. Over the last ten years the major award ceremonies have reflected the public and industry obsession with performing real people and celebrated actors' skills in this respect: lately, Daniel Day Lewis. Dominant actor training still presumes that character is created from a purely imaginative realm but the testimony from actors playing real people suggests a realm of conflicts and ethical conundra which actors are dealing with on their own and trouble-shooting for themselves.

What are your political and ethical responsibilites as an actor towards the subject you are playing? How is your performance affected if you meet the person in question or their family members/community? Is resemblance to your subject important? Is a real person more unknowable than a fictional character? What do you do if you disagree with the portrayal of your subject?

Mary Luckhurst has interviewed some of the world's most famous actors about these and other questions and will share her thoughts and theories on this fascinating and underwritten subject.

Presenters: Professor Nicholas Graves

The first ever Keynote Seminar from the Office for Research Ethics and Integrity will examine peer review and will be chaired be Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Julie Willis.

How do I get research funding? The way research that generates new knowledge is funded is not based on evidence but opinions. Professor Nicholas Graves will present research findings into peer review and how proposals for research funding are chosen. He will present findings that will show the process of applying for National Health and Medical Research Countil (NHMRC) funding is high cost and has some randomness among outcomes. Topics of discussion will include risk aversion in handing out money, bureaucracy and the value of funding agencies in an era where good information about an individual's research outcomes is freely available.

Presenters: Dr Rosalind McDougall

The research community is increasingly looking to involve general practitioners in recruitment for clinical trials. Playing these dual roles of doctor and researcher, GPs may face conflicts of interest in trying to do the best for their patients, their practice and the clinical trial. Potential ethical difficulties include negotiating the different aims of research and clinical care, therapeutic misconception on the part of patients, and problems for informed consent. There is a pressing need to better understand the ethical challenges faced by GPs in this position, to ensure that risks to GPs and their patients are minimised. This seminar will describe preliminary findings from a pilot project that is using qualitative interviews to examine GPs’ and patients’ experiences of negotiating ethical challenges in clinical trials. The project is entitled Practitioners, Risk and Ethics: Dual Investigators and Clinical Trials (PREDICT).

Presenters: Professor Emeritus Nicholas Steneck

Misconduct in research is often characterized as an unusual occurrence that is not indicative of the otherwise high standards for integrity broadly encouraged by governments, researcher institutions and researchers. As such, it is seen as something that governments and institutions need to confront but not a problem for the average, responsible researcher. This talk will review what is known about integrity in research, the reasons researchers engage in misconduct and what institutions and governments have done to respond. It will conclude with the suggestion that future support and funding for research may well depend on whether researchers as a whole assume more responsibility for the integrity of their profession.

This Office for Research Ethics and Integrity keynote seminar will be presented by Professor Nicholas Steneck, University of Michigan USA.

Are you interested in the ethics of sustainability? Are you interested in listening to interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability?

If so, there is an upcoming conference entitled the "Melbourne Sustainability Perspectives and Ethics Conference" which you may like to attend.

The conference is to be held at the University of Melbourne on the 15th of August 2014, from 9 am to 5 pm.

If you would like to attend, please register your interest either by submitting an abstract for a short (15min) or long (30min) talk, or to participate in the afternoon panel discussion.

As it is a free event, please register your interest.

Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be provided.

For more information and to register/submit an abstract, please visit the conference website

Presenters: Mr Graham Bradley AM

The Vincent Fairfax Speaker Series is proudly presented by the Centre for Ethical Leadership through the generous support of the Vincent Fairfax Ethics In Leadership Foundation.

Graham Bradley AM will canvass the mismatch between community and government expectations of the role and accountability of company directors and the realities of boardroom governance in the increasingly global and complex business environment we face today.

Drawing on his 15 years of experience as a public company director and chairman Graham will comment on the evolution of corporate governance principles in Australia and the leadership qualities required to navigate this expectation gap and to bring sound and ethical governance to Australia's corporations.

Graham Bradley AM is a professional company director and is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Stockland Corporation, EnergyAustralia Holdings and HSBC Bank Australia. He also chairs junior gas explorer Po Valley Energy, Virgin Australia International Holdings and the Anglo American Advisory Board and is a director GI Dynamics. In July 2013 he was appointed Chairman of Infrastructure NSW.

Presenters: Dr Ivan Oransky

The OREI Keynote Seminar Series is a forum for innovative, challenging and engaging discussion about research integrity and ethics. In this presentation Dr Ivan Oransky will use case studies based upon retracted publications to discuss what retractions tell us about scientific integrity.

Ivan Oransky, MD, is the vice president and global editorial director of MedPage Today, co-founder of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Retraction Watch, and founder of Embargo Watch.

Presenters: Mr Michael (Dan) Mori

Moral courage comes in many forms - from whistle-blowers speaking out against unjust institutions to multinational corporations taking a stand and putting profits on the line for social justice. When you get your chance will you act with moral courage; are you prepared to disobey?

Michael (Dan) Mori was the military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps after completing his final tour of duty as the Navy-Marine Corps Military Judge in Hawaii in 2012 and has since moved to Melbourne. Dan is the Social Justice Consultant at Shine Lawyers and his book In the Company of Cowards was published by Penguin Books in October 2014.

Join us for an interactive and engaging talk by Dan Mori that will use Dan's real life examples to address personal and commercial experiences of gutsy moral decision making and take a sobering look at the flip side, the cascade of rationalisations that unethical behaviour induces.

Presenters: Dr C. Glenn Begley MBBS PhD FRCPA FRCPath FRACP

As scientists and physicians we all want to make discoveries that will substantially impact human health. We know that scientific advance is predicated on new knowledge that is robust and reliable, and that serves as a foundation on which further advances can be built.

Biomedical research is in the midst of a revolution with the generation of new data and scientific publications at a previously unprecedented rate. However, unfortunately, there is compelling evidence that the majority of these discoveries will not stand the test of time. This lack of solid, trustworthy data is a multifaceted, multi-stakholder problem; no single party is solely responsible, and no single solution will suffice.

In this presentation, examples of the recurring lack of attention to scientific rigor and reproducibility will be provided, and potential solutions will be discussed.

Join us for the first in a four-part Art and Ethics seminar series, presented by the VCA and MCM and the University of Melbourne's School of Culture and Communication.

An evening of conversation with Jonathan Green (host of Radio National's Sunday Extra and editor of Meanjin), Peter Singer (philosopher), Anna Broinowski (filmmaker, author) and James Button (author, former journalist & speech writer to Kevin Rudd).

What are the ethical challenges of making art about real life, with real people, in a world of real politics? What are the responsibilities? What role can art play?

Come and hear from those who think it, write it, perform it and film it! The dilemmas, the laughs, the ethics of art in the REAL world!

Presenters: Laureate Professor Peter Singer, Professor Julian Suvalescu, Dr Neera Bhatia, Mr William Isdale

Join Peter Singer, Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne and Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and an expert panel including, Professor Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, Dr Neera Bhatia, Lecturer in Law at Deakin University, Julian Koplin, PhD candidate at Monash University’s Centre for Human Bioethics and William Isdale, Arts/Law Student at the University of Queensland and Academic Excellence Scholar and TJ Ryan Meddalist and Scholar as they discuss Australian organ donation rates and examine the ethics of a broad range of policies that have been proposed to increase these rates.

This public forum will examine the ethics of a broad range of policies that have been proposed to increase organ donation rates. It will bring together bioethicists Peter Singer and Julian Savulescu and others working in this area to discuss a range policies including opt-out systems, prioritising of existing organ donors, reducing the role of family consent, and legalising the sale of organs. In addition to arguments from the panel of speakers, the event will invite audience discussion of the ethics of the various proposals.

In this second seminar of a four-part Art and Ethics series, the role that live animals play in contemporary art practice, in both the visual and performing arts is explored by a panel. The panel will reflect on how such projects and artistic creations might be approached through a University institutional framing of ethics. The conversation will shed light on the unspoken assumptions that underpin attitudes to animals, art and ethics, and on shared and divergent views across the disciplines.

Hosted by Dr Kate MacNeill, Head Art History and Arts and Cultural Management, the seminar will also include representatives from the University of Melbourne ethics committees, both creative arts and the animal sciences.

The panel includes Victoria Lynn, Director of TarraWarra Art Museum, and co-curator of the current Pierre Huyghe exhibition, a show that contains bees, ants and spiders; Professor Peta Tait, author of a number of works on live animals in performance, including Wild and Dangerous Performances: Animals, Emotions, Circus and member of the Human Rights and Animals Ethics Research Network; and Dr Seth Dunipace, animal welfare scientist and farmer, Fulbright Scholar and friend of the pig.

Image credit: Claudi Gasch, 2015

Presenters: Dr Brett Baker

An increasing number of research professionals are interested in conducting research with Aboriginal people, especially in remote parts of Australia. Conducting research with Aboriginal people, however, often in remote areas with strong traditional cultural continuities, presents researchers with considerable academic as well as interpersonal challenges.

Drawing upon own experience working with Aboriginal people in both remote and regional areas of Australia, and with regards to the literature and national guidelines of various Indigenous organisations, Dr Brett Baker will discuss some of the concerns that Aboriginal people have about research participation and how to get the best outcomes for a research project involving Aboriginal people. Dr Baker will also present current research projects that illustrate why research with Aboriginal participants is crucial for our understanding of human behaviour more broadly.

Dr Brett Baker is a linguist who has been studying the Indigenous languages of Australia first-hand in remote parts of Arnhem Land for around 20 years.

Presenters: Dr Andrew Ross

Due to globalisation, commercial clinical trials of new drugs are increasingly being conducted in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, despite the fact that if proven to be effective, the drugs will only be affordable to people in High-Income Countries. This type of arrangement has benefits for all parties, but has been described as exploitation of the countries hosting the research and of participants themselves.

In this presentation, Dr Andrew Ross will discuss a number of examples in order to illustrate what we mean by 'exploitation' in this context, and what should be done about it.

Dr Andrew Ross was recently awarded a PhD in Philosophy by Queen's University at Kingston, Canada, for his dissertation on exploitation in international clinical trials. He is currently involved in redesigning The University of Melbourne's Human Research Ethics application forms and guidance materials.

Presenters: Professor Joseph Carens

In this lecture, Professor Joseph H. Carens will focus on three specific questions related to the ethics of immigration. First, how should immigrants who settle without official permission be treated, even if we assume that the state normally has the right to control immigration? Second, what are our responsibilities to refugees, again assuming that states are normally entitled to control immigration? Finally, what should we think about the assumption that states are normally morally entitled to control immigration?

Professor Carens will argue that irregular immigrants are morally entitled to a range of legal rights and that, over time, they should be granted legal status and a right to obtain citizenship. He will also argue that we have a moral duty to admit many more refugees than we do now, both through the asylum process and through resettlement of those in refugee camps abroad. Finally, he will challenge the conventional view that states are entitled to control immigration, arguing that a just world would be one in which the economic differences between states would be greatly reduced and borders would be almost entirely open.

Joseph H. Carens is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and Professorial Fellow at the Institute for Social Justice at Australian Catholic University in Sydney.

Presenters: Professor Elizabeth Anderson

The 2016 Barry Taylor and David Lewis Philosophy Lecture is presented by Professor Elizabeth Anderson.

Pragmatism is often loosely characterized as the view that people should adopt "whatever works." This seems like empty and useless advice, since it omits any substantive criterion of what works. This lecture will explain what this advice really means, why we ought to follow it, and how we can follow it. The key to pragmatism lies in its method, which deeply integrates moral with empirical inquiry. Pragmatism offers two ways to intelligently update our moral beliefs: bias correction, and experiments in living. In this presentation, Professor Anderson will illustrate how these methods work and why they make sense.

Professor Elizabeth Anderson is the author of Value in Ethics and Economics (Harvard UP, 1993), The Imperative of Integration (Princeton UP, 2010), and numerous, widely reprinted articles in journals of philosophy, law, and economics.

From human clones to mutant monsters, the big screen loves to draw inspiration from science for the sake of spectacle. But science can also be used to tell powerful human stories and tackle big questions facing humanity.

Silver Screen Science is a contemporary science film festival where screenings are followed by thought-provoking discussion and a Q&A with Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers and Melbourne’s talented storytellers.

Presented in partnership with Melbourne Writers Festival and ACMI.

Film schedule:

Friday 26 August, 7pm - Never Let Me Go;

Saturday 27 August, 7.30pm - I Am Legend;

Sunday 28 August, 6.30pm - Jabbed

Tickets $10, includes drink on arrival

Presenters: Dr Gideon Aschwanden, Dr Dave Kendal, Dr Dale Leorke, Dr Andi Horvath, Dr Belinda Barnet, Dr Jenny Waycott, Professor Thas Nirmalathas, Professor Luciano Floridi

The Networked Society Symposium (NSS17) showcases the breadth of interdisciplinary research occurring at University of Melbourne's Networked Society Institute. It provides an opportunity to connect, engage and debate the matters essential to the networked society.

The symposium also provides networking opportunities with researchers, industry, policy makers and the community. The day includes research presentations, keynote speakers, interactive demonstrations, panel discussions, and plenty of catered breaks in between.

The theme for NSS17 is ‘The Philosophy of Technology’ and keynote speaker is Professor Luciano Floridi of the Oxford Internet Institute. His talk is titled 'The Green and the Blue: The smart deal for a sustainable and preferable future'.

Other topics for NSS17 include:

Urban Green Spaces - learn how we have turned University Square into a living lab that is showing us how to design smarter cities that will create healthier and happier citizens

Medicine ex Machina - how popular new technology is being used to transform healthcare in surprising ways

Digital Transformation of Society - how fundamental industries such as law, agriculture and architecture are changing in the digital age

NSS17 concludes with a panel of thought leaders discussing the philosophy of technology: how increasing connectivity has changed us as people and how we think - both the positives and negative. Often we ask what can technology do for us, but rarely do we ask if it should.

This is a free event but we recommend registering as it will book out. Full program is now available on the Networked Society Institute website.

Presenters: Professor David Vaux AO, MBBS, PhD.AO, Professor Jakob Howhy PhD, Professor Lyn Beazley PhD, AO, Professor Michael Goldberg MD, Sir Colin Blakemore FRS, FMedSci, FRSB, FBPhS

With the rapid advancement of science, ethical dilemmas arise frequently. These range from the use of embryonic stem cells or animals in research, deciding how much power to give robots and artificial intelligence, how far to go with clinical trials in humans or using modern technology to decide whether one should turn off the life support of someone in coma.

Though science is not infallible, it is essential that scientific research is pursued with integrity and transparency and to the highest possible standards. Scientists owe this dedication and honesty to their pursuit of truth and to the tax-payer who both funds and is the beneficiary of the research.

At this forum, five internationally renowned scientists working in different fields will address some of these ethical issues and answer questions from the floor.

The Q&A will be moderated by moderated by Bernie Hobbs from the ABC, by arrangement with Claxton Speakers International'

Presenters: Professor Dominic Wilkinson, Professor Julian Savulescu

Some say death is inevitable but suffering doesn't have to be. But when it comes to perspectives on what suffering is, and how to limit it, there are many. The VCCC is delighted to host two luminaries in modern ethics to provide a considered view.

Join Professor Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford and Visiting Professorial Fellow, Murdoch Children's Research Institute along with Professor Dominic Wilkinson, Prof of Medical Ethics, University of Oxford and practising neonatologist for this insightful Monday Lunch Live lecture.

Julian and Dominic will discuss the ethics of making decisions to limit potentially life prolonging medical treatment and to assist in dying. They will examine the role of respect for autonomy, the determination of best interests and the role of distributive justice in making such decisions. They will provide a decision-procedure for making decisions when conflict occurs between patients and medical professionals and will explore the role of ethics consultation, mediation and arbitration.

Presenters: Professor Colleen M Flood

Seminar: 1pm – 2pm A light lunch will be served from 12.30pm

Sixty-nine per cent of constitutions worldwide now include a right to health or healthcare. The existence of a right to health is now uncontested in international human rights law. But for all these formal declarations, extreme inequalities continue: healthcare spending per capita for the top 5 per cent of the world’s population is nearly 4500 times that of the lowest 20 per cent, and 2.5 million people die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases. These statistics force us to take stock: what has the judicialisation of health rights achieved?

In this presentation, Professor Colleen M. Flood, Director of the University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, will explore the power and the limitations of the right to health. She will outline the results from a 16-country study of the right to health and argue a case for the role courts should play in realising a just right to health.

Presenters: Associate Professor Vanessa Teague, Ms Rachel Dixon

There has been much talk of the need for focus on ethics in AI development and automated decision-making, and there’s no doubt we can benefit from attention to ethics in all program development. But an ethical framework on its own will not reduce the risk of unintended consequences in development and deployment of technology.

This talk will look at the range of issues that influence the use of technology in government and business and how we might develop a better way of delivering technology-enabled services.

Canapes and drinks will be served from 5.00pm, with the seminar beginning at 6.00pm.

Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is an initiative held every year across the Asia Pacific to promote and raise awareness of privacy issues and the importance of protecting personal information. This event is hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.

Presenters: Professor Raimond Gaita

2019 Wednesday Lectures hosted by Raimond Gaita

In the 1960s many of the intelligentsia (academics, writers, journalists) in the West came to see ethical and spiritual depths in practices and beliefs that were previously believed to express the superstitions of scientifically backward savages. Only 10 years earlier this was unintelligible, even to those who later came to regard themselves as awakened to something of the deepest moral and political importance. Similar, though less radical, changes occurred in attitudes to women, the continuing effects of colonialism, and gender.

Less than 10 years later academics, mostly in the humanities and social sciences, developed theories that claimed many of the same people are still sleepwalking through interdependent, intersecting structures of privilege and oppression, unaware of the many ways they are caught up in them. The moral and political implications are radical, far to the left of any presently electable political party.

Taking this as their backdrop, the Wednesday Lectures, now in their 20th year, will discuss race, feminism, gender, the continuing effects of colonialism, free speech and the politics of climate change.

In the first lecture, host Raimond Gaita will speak to the title of the series, 'Sleepwalking through Privilege and Oppression?', explaining why he chose it.