Content note: mention of sexual assault There is a norm in my society, and that norm is silence. I think this norm exists in many societies, but I can only speak for my own, Western, secular experience. This norms tells us that we are supposed to simply not talk about many things: money, sex and… Continue reading Weighing the Harms of Cultural Silence
An oft-repeated idea in our current milieu is that "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism." This idea speaks to the just absolutely massive scale on which injustice and harm happens, and also gestures at the collective nature of the problem, while simultaneously acknowledging that despite the collective nature of the problem, individual actions are… Continue reading Virtue Ethics as Coping Method
The previous installment of Moral Guillotines, "ChatGPT and Demonstrating Care" focused specifically on the case of students who might use ChatGPT to complete academic assignments. In that post, I argued that ChatGPT was symptomatic of a larger systemic issue which emphasizes product over process, and privileges polish over genuine engagement and substance, at the expense… Continue reading ChatGPT and Demonstrating Care Part 2: Care for Creative Workers and Culture
The robots are taking over. Plagiarism is no longer the greatest threat to academic integrity. The world is in a flurry. I've written before about what I think are the deeper issues around AI, but today I wanted to come back to that, specifically thinking about Chat GPT and the academic context, and where I… Continue reading Chat GPT and Demonstrating Care
Although on first glance you might think thought experiments are located primarily in philosophy, as a philosopher and sff writer, I firmly believe that a lot of sff serves as a valuable vehicle for thought experiments. Of course, I'm not the only one. I've been involved in courses where professors have taught texts like Ursula… Continue reading SFF and Thought Experiments
Women, POC, and transfolk, have all made great arguments about why the idea of "professionalism" can be oppressive, and work against equity and inclusion. Less has been said about why professional norms, particularly around dress, constitute moral harms. Certainly it has been said though that these systems and actions that support those systems, such as… Continue reading Another Reason to be Skeptical of Professionalism
Most people who've talked to me in the last two years know that I have become increasingly perplexed and befuddled by the idea of gender. Towards the end of my degree, I was part of a reading group that talked a lot about the philosophy of gender and just generally tackled ideas around gender with… Continue reading What is Gender Anyway?
The proliferation of easily created AI art has brought to the forefront ethical and aesthetic questions about such things as: What qualifies as (visual) art? Should other people feel free to use AI art in place of traditional artist-generated art? What duties, if any, do those other people who use AI generated art have to… Continue reading Where is the Harm? AI Art and Ethics
Something I've been thinking about for a while is that there must be a connection between consent, agency, and truth. For instance, we've started to become more aware of "stealthing", and have correctly identified it not simply as a moral harm, but also as a crime. "Stealthing" is the practice of sexually assaulting someone by… Continue reading Informed Consent in the Age of Misinformation
Instead of my regularly programmed Moral Guillotines, this week I'm bringing you a little snapshot into the types of ethical consulting I'm available for over at Type-Driven Consulting, and how the Type-Driven ethos is informing my ethics approach. Read all about it here: https://www.typedriven.ca/type-driven-ethics/
Moral Guillotines 