Latest articles
16th April 2024
The Self as a Multispecies Being. Ethical Aspects of the Influence of Microbes on the Physicalness
Trillions of microbes live on and in the bodies of humans, animals and plants. They form the human, animal or plant microbiome. Accordingly, microbiomes do not exist independently of each other. Through the constant circulation and interaction of microorganisms, we humans are connected to each other and to our environment in a complex way. This raises numerous ethical questions. These are examined in the following blog post. The focus is on ethical questions in the context of human physicality.
2nd April 2024
The Role of ethics in shaping robotics development
This article discusses how ethics can be integrated into the development of autonomous robotics. Firstly, a potential mediating role between philosophical ethics and engineering is outlined. Secondly, the capability of ethics of robotics in making implicit values in the development of the technology is explicitly discussed. Thirdly, it is demonstrated how this reflection can contribute to making issues of responsibility visible. Finally, it is pointed out that ethical reasoning and concepts often precede and inform legal regulation.
19th March 2024
Reflecting on security behaviour: With Odysseus and Orpheus
In 2016, Regina Ammicht Quinn asked "What does, can and may ethics do" in relation to security debates? Based on her remarks on Odysseus' approach and a transfer to prevention, we will compare Odysseus' and Orpheus' approaches and draw small lessons for security behaviour.
Blog Categories
2nd April 2024
The Role of ethics in shaping robotics development
This article discusses how ethics can be integrated into the development of autonomous robotics. Firstly, a potential mediating role between philosophical ethics and engineering is outlined. Secondly, the capability of ethics of robotics in making implicit values in the development of the technology is explicitly discussed. Thirdly, it is demonstrated how this reflection can contribute to making issues of responsibility visible. Finally, it is pointed out that ethical reasoning and concepts often precede and inform legal regulation.
25th January 2024
Ethical reflection as orientation knowledge
In this blog article, the problem of a lack of orientation is framed as an area of tension between knowledge of availability and knowledge of orientation, with particular consideration of ethical reflection as a form of knowledge of orientation.
14th November 2023
Keeping Livestock in Africa
Not least to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 - Zero hunger -, there is much discussion and experimentation in the African context on the intensification of so called ‘neglected’ livestock species. In the following, we will examine the idea of intensification from a Sustainable Development and ethical perspective.
19th March 2024
Reflecting on security behaviour: With Odysseus and Orpheus
In 2016, Regina Ammicht Quinn asked "What does, can and may ethics do" in relation to security debates? Based on her remarks on Odysseus' approach and a transfer to prevention, we will compare Odysseus' and Orpheus' approaches and draw small lessons for security behaviour.
15th December 2023
Grotesque Women in the Media
The media exert a significant influence on body images. They confirm cultural ideals of beauty, disseminate idealised images and influence social norms and values. This article will focus on how the grotesque, repulsive, obscene body, of all things, can contribute to breaking down such powerful representational conventions and questioning normative ideas of femininity.
5th March 2024
Intuitions in Ethical Judgement - Helpful or Misleading?
In our everyday lives, we constantly have to make decisions. We make many of these decisions spontaneously, on instinct. Others we think about longer, weigh up the pros and cons and try to find good reasons for our actions. Morally relevant decisions involve both - sometimes more intuitive, sometimes more reflective.
15th December 2023
Grotesque Women in the Media
The media exert a significant influence on body images. They confirm cultural ideals of beauty, disseminate idealised images and influence social norms and values. This article will focus on how the grotesque, repulsive, obscene body, of all things, can contribute to breaking down such powerful representational conventions and questioning normative ideas of femininity.
21st February 2022
Consulting or "ethical coating"?
Ethics counseling in the health care sector is increasingly not provided by external experts, but by grassroots trained employees from within the company, who either act as counselors themselves or, for example, conduct an ethical case discussion (...)
16th April 2024
The Self as a Multispecies Being. Ethical Aspects of the Influence of Microbes on the Physicalness
Trillions of microbes live on and in the bodies of humans, animals and plants. They form the human, animal or plant microbiome. Accordingly, microbiomes do not exist independently of each other. Through the constant circulation and interaction of microorganisms, we humans are connected to each other and to our environment in a complex way. This raises numerous ethical questions. These are examined in the following blog post. The focus is on ethical questions in the context of human physicality.