•  1007
    Psychedelics and environmental virtues
    Philosophical Psychology 1 1-25. 2022.
    The urgent need for solutions to critical environmental challenges is well attested, but often environmental problems are understood as fundamentally collective action problems. However, to solve to these problems, there is also a need to change individual behavior. Hence, there is a pressing need to inculcate in individuals the environmental virtues — virtues of character that relate to our environmental place in the world. We propose a way of meeting this need, by the judicious, safe, and cont…Read more
  •  92
    “Arguments from nature” are used, and have historically been used, in popular responses to advances in technology and to environmental issues—there is a widely shared body of ethical intuitions that nature, or perhaps human nature, sets some limits on the kinds of ends that we should seek, the kinds of things that we should do, or the kinds of lives that we should lead. Virtue ethics can provide the context for a defensible form of the argument from nature, and one that makes proper sense of its…Read more
  •  83
    AI, big data, and the future of consent
    with Adam J. Andreotta and Marco Rizzi
    AI and Society 37 (4): 1715-1728. 2022.
    In this paper, we discuss several problems with current Big data practices which, we claim, seriously erode the role of informed consent as it pertains to the use of personal information. To illustrate these problems, we consider how the notion of informed consent has been understood and operationalised in the ethical regulation of biomedical research (and medical practices, more broadly) and compare this with current Big data practices. We do so by first discussing three types of problems that …Read more
  •  50
    Recognizing Our Place in the World
    Environmental Ethics 38 (1): 97-119. 2016.
    What might a modern environmental or technological virtue or vice look like? That is, what virtues or vices might relate to our environmental place in the world, rather than our social place in the world? This question is particularly pressing in light of the unique chal­lenges presented by the current environmental and technological milieu. A recurring theme that arises in response to advances in certain technologies, particularly technologies that are seen in some way as “interfering in nature…Read more
  •  49
    Situating ‘Giving Voice to Values’: A Metatheoretical Evaluation of a New Approach to Business Ethics
    with Mark G. Edwards
    Journal of Business Ethics 121 (3): 477-495. 2014.
    The evaluation of new theories and pedagogical approaches to business ethics is an essential task for ethicists. This is true not only for empirical and applied evaluation but also for metatheoretical evaluation. However, while there is increasing interest in the practical utility and empirical testing of ethical theories, there has been little systematic evaluation of how new theories relate to existing ones or what novel conceptual characteristics they might contribute. This paper aims to addr…Read more
  •  34
    'Playing God' and 'Vexing Nature': A Cultural Perspective
    Environmental Values 15 (2): 173-195. 2006.
    In this paper I examine the twin concepts of 'playing God', and its secular equivalent – that which I term for the purpose of this discussion 'vexing Nature' – as they relate to arguments against certain human technological actions and behaviours. While noting the popular subscription to the notion that certain acts constitute instances of 'playing God' or interfering in the natural order, philosophers often deny that such phrases have any application to the central ethical issues in the areas w…Read more
  •  30
    Is biotechnology the new alchemy?
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 40 (1): 70-80. 2009.
    In this article I examine similarities between the science and ethics of biotechnology on the one hand, and those of alchemy on the other, and show that the understanding of nature and naturalness upon which many contemporary ethical responses to biotechnology are predicated is, in fact, significantly similar to the understanding of nature that was the foundation of the practice of alchemy. In doing so I demonstrate that the ethical issues and social responses that are currently arising from adv…Read more
  •  16
    Implementation of a multi-disciplinary ethics unit
    with Lynette B. Fernandes, Anna-Marie Babey, and Dominique Blache
    International Journal of Ethics Education 4 (2): 109-123. 2019.
    The multi-disciplinary unit Social Responsibility in Action was developed for students with an interest in ethics who were completing undergraduate degrees in Arts, Commerce, Design or Science at an Australian research-intensive university. The academic objectives of this unit were to increase student awareness, knowledge, understanding and critical thinking skills related to various ethical issues. Lecturers from five disciplines collaborated in the design and delivery of SRA, which comprised l…Read more
  •  6
    Philosophical inquiry in a culturally diverse, faith-based community
    with Kwadwo Adusei-Asante, Kaz Bland, Douglas Nelson, and Stella Tarrant
    Journal of Philosophy in Schools 10 (1). 2023.
    This paper reports on collaborative research undertaken with the African Australian Christian Impact Centre (CIC) in Perth, Western Australia. It is part of a larger university philosophy outreach program in which the researchers seek to create opportunities for those on the educational and social margins, and young people, to engage in ‘doing philosophy’, and to learn from them about their experiences. We were interested to evaluate whether the collaborative philosophical inquiry methods we use…Read more
  •  6
    Appeals to the moral value of nature and naturalness are commonly used in debates about technology and the environment and to inform our approach to the ethics of technology and the environment more generally. In this paper, I will argue, firstly, that arguments from nature, as they are used in debates about new technologies and about the environment, are misinterpreted when they are understood as attempting to put forward categorical objections to certain human activities and, consequently, the…Read more
  •  1
    The Virtues of Motherhood
    In Fritz Allhoff & Sheila Lintott (eds.), Motherhood ‐ Philosophy for Everyone, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.
    This chapter contains sections titled: The Complex Unity Endurance Helps Knowing When to Let Go Following Your Example Imitation is the Highest Form of… Notes.