Upcoming Events
SEMINARS
Seminars In Canberra
The Centre presents a series of weekly seminars at the ANU in Canberra. In 2008, seminars will usually be held on Wednesdays at 4:00pm, in the Arts Meeting Room (directly below CAPPE), Ground Floor, Haydon Allen Building (Building 022), The Australian National University. More...
Next Canberra seminar-
Monday 19th of May at 2pm will be Associate Professor Ian Hunt (Flinders University).
Title: Why Social Justice Matters
Abstract
This paper assesses Brian Barry ‘s attempt in Why Social Justice Matters to argue the importance of social justice, and to show what public policies for a modern capitalist society, such as the US or UK, flow from its requirements. Barry deplores the ideological assumptions that have obscured the importance of social justice but he does not address their intellectual roots. I claim that, if philosophers are to argue the importance of social justice for public policy, we must first address the philosophical ideas that have persuaded leaders of public opinion and policy makers in OECD countries to put their emphasis on efficiency, and to dismiss issues of equality or equity on the basis of its supposed efficiency cost. Leaving aside claims about the presumed benefits of perfectly competitive markets, I address Hayek’s nihilistic theory and Nozick’s defence of ‘natural liberty’, and show that both fail to dismiss any question of the fairness of free market capitalist societies other than arising from past wrongdoing.
Though Rawls’s Theory of Justice is forbiddingly complex, it provides a simple criterion of the fairness of the rules by which our societies operate to produce the inequalities Barry deplores. I claim that once we apply this criterion to our institutions, it becomes apparent that the task of achieving justice in accord with Rawls’s criterion requires such substantial change as to be beyond the capacity of changes to public policy. Other contemporary theories of social justice that question the justice of present societies do not clearly identify closer ideally just societies than Rawls’s ideal. I conclude that we have better prospects of achieving an ‘overlapping consensus’ for public policy purposes around a ‘non-ideal’ theory and principles for making unjust societies fairer.
Enquiries to Dr Daniel Star: daniel.star@anu.edu.au or (02) 61259628
Future Seminars in Canberra
Past Seminars in Canberra
Seminars In Melbourne
The Centre presents regular seminars at the University of Melbourne. Seminars will normally be held on Wednesdays at 4:15 pm in the Moot Court Room, South West Corner of the Old (Law) Quad, University of Melbourne. More...
Next Melbourne seminar-
Wednesday 21st of May: Dr. Steve Curry (CAPPE).
Title: Justification and 'The Reasonable'
Abstract:
Somewhere between the ideal of objective truth in moral judgements and the Charybdis of relativism lies justification, an apparent cop-out in normative ethics almost as bad as the elusive idea of 'the reasonable' upon which it ultimately rests. In this paper I will boldly attempt a defence of justification, and will attempt to give substance to reasonableness such that it can provide us with everyday rules for practical ethics.
Wednesday 28th of May: Dr. Andrew McGee (QUT).
Title: How to defend the Sanctity of Life Principle: A Reply to Professor Keown
Abstract:
This is a further instalment of a debate between McGee and Keown, first begun in the pages of the Medical Law Review (Volume 13/3) on the act/omission distinction in medicine.
Enquiries to Dr Steven Curry: sbcurry@unimelb.edu.au or (03) 8344 3852
If you wish to receive notification of forthcoming CAPPE Seminars in Melbourne, you can send an email to mailto:LISTSERV@artsit.unimelb.edu.au with the text "subscribe cappe-broadcast Your First Name Your Last Name" in the BODY of the email and you will be added to our list automatically.
Wagga Wagga Seminars
The Centre presents regular seminars on the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University. These are held on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm in Room 181, Marchant Hall unless otherwise stated.
Next Wagga Wagga seminar-
Thursday 8th of May: Associate Professor Jeanette Kennett (CAPPE) & Dr. Steve Matthews (CSU/CAPPE).
Title: Memory and Moral Responsibility
Abstract:
In this paper we explore the importance of mental time travel - our ordinary ability to mentally travel to temporal locations outside the present, involving both memory of our personal past and the ability to imagine ourselves in the future - to our agential capacities for planning and control. We suggest that in many individuals with dissociative disorders, forms of amnesia, or other frontal lobe damage, the capacity for mental time travel is impaired, resulting in commensurate losses to agency, autonomy, and a forensic condition essential for holding persons responsible: in legal terms, the capacity for mens rea.
CANBERRA EVENT
ADVANCE NOTICE
Criminal Justice Ethics Workshop: Criminalization3 July 2008, Arts Meeting Room, Haydon-Allen Building, Australian National University.
Doug Husak (Law & Philosophy, Rutgers University), who has recently authored Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law (2008), will be visiting CAPPE in July. We are organising a workshop on themes from his book, particularly as they relate to his proposed external and internal constraints on criminalization. three papers on his work will be presented by Professor Heidi M. Hurd, Professor Michael S. Moore (both of University of Illinois Law School), and Dr. Robert Young (La Trobe University).
For catering purposes, it would help to know if you plan to attend. Please contact Professor John Kleinig.
Word versions of Ch. 2 & 3 (which focus on Husak's internal and external constraints) can be made available to those who ask, and those who indicate in advance are welcome to join in a lunch after the workshop.
MELBOURNE PUBLIC LECTURES
The Melbourne Division of the Centre conducts an exciting series of public lectures. The speakers are all prominent in their fields and the topics are challenging and often confronting.
Recent Melbourne Public lecture -
Professor C.A. (Tony) Coady
A Historical Overview of Melbourne Philosophy from the 1880s to the present day.
6.00 pm, Wednesday, 5th December
Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Lecture Theatre A
You are invited to join us for drinks and nibbles at 5.30 pm.
The author of a recent Sydneycentric book on Australian philosophy claimed that
the story of Melbourne philosophy lacked interest and excitement. He declared:
"If anyone can write a book about Why Melbourne Philosophy is Interesting After
All, I am all for it". This talk is in part an attempt to meet this challenge by
showing how the history of academic philosophy in Melbourne from its beginnings
in 1881 provides a fascinating insight into intellectual developments in
Melbourne, and in Australia more broadly. It is largely a history of the
Philosophy Department at the University of Melbourne since the other
universities in the city are creations of the second half of the 20th century,
though their philosophy departments have made significant contributions since
then. Professor Tony Coady will discuss this history both in its purely academic
phases and in its impact on the broader community. He will seek to show what has
been distinctive about the development of philosophy in this university and
where it now stands in relation to the philosophy that is done elsewhere in
Australia and internationally.
RSVP essential: 03 8344 5142 or office@philosophy.unimelb.edu.au
Enquiries to: cappe-info@unimelb.edu.au or (03) 83445125.
RECENT EVENTS
Morality and Political Violence - Professor C.A.J. (Tony) Coady
Innovations Building, The Australian National University, 5 May 2008
Launched by Professor Hugh White - Head of Strategic & Defence Studies, The Australian National University. More
More about 'Morality and Political Violence' by Tony Coady
ET GOVICT2008 - A Conference on the Ethical Governance of ICT and the Role of Professional Bodies
University House, Australian National University, 1-2 May 2008. This conference has been supported by The Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, The Australian Computer Society, ARC Governance Research Network, The Australian National University, Charles Sturt University and UNESCO. Program Speakers
When the Music Stops: Private Equity, Securitisation and the Future of Capital Markets
University of Sydney law School, Friday, 14th of December. More
Private Equity, Securitisation and Corporate Governance Roundtable
Freehills Moot Court, College of Law, ANU, Wednesday, 12th of December. More
Negotiating the Sacred IV: Toleration, Education and the Curriculum
1-2 September 2007, Research School for the Humanities, Australian National University. This conference has been supported by the ANU Research School for the Humanities, the Freilich Foundation, GovNet (an Australian Research Council Research Network) and CAPPE (an ARC funded Special Research Centre). More
Moral Cognition and Meta-Ethics Conference
31st August - 2nd September 2007 in Sydney, Australia. More
The Governance of Science and Technology
A Joint GovNet/CAPPE/UNESCO Conference, 9-10th August 2007 at the Australian National University.
The Governance of Science & Technology
Ethical Questions for NGOs Involved In International Relief and Development
A GovNet/CAPPE sponsored Workshop 18-20 July 2007, University of Melbourne.
NGOs Workshop Announcement
The Dynamics of Capital Market Governance: Evaluating the Conflicting and Conflating Roles of Compliance, Regulation, Ethics and Accountability
An ESRC/GovNet Sponsored Workshop, Australian National University
14-15 March 2007. More
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