ethics

Virginia Held, professor emerita of philosophy at the City University of New York and an influential figure in ethics and social and political philosophy, has died. Professor Held is especially well known for her work on the ethics of care and feminist philosophy. She is the author of several books, including The Public Interest and Individual Interests (1970), Rights and Goods: Justifying Social…

_British Journal for the History of Philosophy_. 2026This paper reconsiders Hegel’s account of madness in the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences and the Lectures on the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit. Hegel characterizes mental disorder as a disruption rooted in the natural determinacy of the mind, while simultaneously insisting on its necessary relation to rationality and maintaining t…

The IVF industry exploits Down syndrome anxiety and fear among older women to market PGT-A. Clinical evidence shows no improvement in IVF success rates and exposes misdiagnosis risks. More transparency and stringent regulations are needed to curtail misleading and unethical marketing practices.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a reporter working on a story about the extent to which AI, as a topic of research and an area of specialization demanded by employers, was becoming dominant in philosophy. Here’s one thing I said to her: People should be cautious when inferring how much philosophy of AI work is actually happening from how much philosophy of AI work they’re hearing about. AI is…

This paper introduces "scope leakage of happiness" as a moral-psychological phenomenon in which perceived responsibility expands beyond legitimate culpability and practical remedial power, producing losses in subjective well-being that are not redeemed by corresponding improvements in the world. Contemporary persons are exposed to global harms with historically unusual immediacy and frequency, ye…

This paper examines the structural limitations of artificial intelligence in therapeutic and ethical contexts, drawing on modal logic as both analytical framework and case study. The paper contributes to the emerging discourse on medical AI ethics by arguing that the recent failures of AI therapy chatbots, including cases of serious harm to vulnerable users, are not engineering problems awaiting …

This article grows out of a professional dialogue among three librarians working at different career stages: Ava Wallace, an early career archival intern and LIS student; Russell Michalak, a mid-career library director at a Hispanic-Serving Institution; and Trevor A. Dawes, an established university librarian and national leader. Their exchange reflects a shared commitment to examining both the o…

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for research and writing has left librarians with a new challenge: how to teach ethical use of AI in a time of little to no regulation, pending court cases regarding copyright, and concerns over the level of environmental impact and potential stunting of critical-thinking skills. Students’ views of and experiences with AI are mixed,1 thoug…

In recent years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) content has been integrated into everyday life. Generative AI tools produce meal plans and shape travel itineraries, often without clear source acknowledgment or attribution. Rapid expansion of generative AI warrants renewed attention and focus on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education’s Information Has Value frame.…

The failure of countries that depend on migrant farm workers to guarantee professional medical interpretation for them when they get sick violates basic ethical principles and fundamental human rights. The post Lost in Translation: When Migrant Farm Workers Get Sick appeared first on The Hastings Center for Bioethics .

_Religions_ 17 (6):632. 2026The position presented in Concluding Unscientific Postscript to “Philosophical Fragments” published under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus—crystallized in the infamous declaration that truth is subjectivity—has often been interpreted as dramatically upholding the rift between the Christian faith and common-sense reason. Through a comparison with Kant’s approach in philo…

_European Journal of Philosophy_. forthcomingThis paper is about reasons to love people. I defend a “particularist” view: that the central reason to love someone is simply who she is. I begin with a framing question—“why do you love me?”—and a taxonomy of views of love's reasons (§1). I argue that a particularist view is demanded by that framing question (§2). But offering such a view requires sa…

_Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy_. forthcomingAction theory offers well-developed treatments of tool use and of delegation, but agentic AI belongs to neither category. The user specifies an end; the system autonomously selects the means. What, then, secures the connection between the user’s intention and outcome that distinguishes intentional action from lucky coincidence when…

Can artificial intelligence warrant moral consideration if its morally relevant features do not appear at the level of an individual mind? Existing debates about AI moral considerability usually focus on individual systems: whether a robot, model, agent, or interaction partner is conscious, sentient, behaviorally equivalent to moral patients, socially recognized, autonomous, or morally agentic. T…

IntroductionGenerative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming scientific workflows, yet empirical data on its adoption within national research infrastructures remain scarce.MethodsThis study presents the results of a comprehensive survey conducted at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in spring 2025, collecting 371 responses (∼20% of the workforce). Data were…

Essay I explores brain machine interface technologies. These make direct communication between the brain and a machine possible by means of electrical stimuli. This essay reviews the existing and emerging technologies in this field and offers an inquiry into the ethical problems that are likely to emerge. Essay II, co-written with professor Sven-Ove Hansson, presents a novel procedure to engage t…

Gong Lun proposes a middle-range theoretical framework for understanding Gong (the Common Good) as the expansion of Si (self-interest), rather than its elimination. It defines Gong by the formula: Radius of Empathy × Temporal Horizon × Willingness to Act. The framework argues that Gong is not a moral ideal but a survival necessity at individual, group, and species levels. It identifies five layer…

This is the weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources, new reviews of philosophy books, new podcast episodes, recently published open access philosophy books, and more. (If we missed anything, please let us know.) SEP New:  ∅ Revised: Nāgārjuna by Jan Christoph Westerhoff. Disability and Justice by Jessica Begon, Daniel Putnam, David Wasserman, Jeffrey Blustein, and …

I’ve been thinking about truth lately, especially in relation to reality, objectivity, and subjective experience. I’m not claiming this is fully worked out, so I’d appreciate critique or ...

Let's think about Kalam. Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. "Everything" entails the universe. Thus, in order for me to accept this premise, you must demonstrate it ...