Schedule for "Does Neuroscience Have Normative Implications" released.

The schedule for the symposium "Does Neuroscience Have Normative Implications?" is up! You can view it below, or visit the symposium website.

Research Fellow Opening at Ethics Center at Illinois Institute of Technology

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at Illinois Institute of Technology is looking for a research fellow to assist in enhancing its Ethics Code Collection and to explore the current and future roles of ethics codes within society, business, and technological innovation. The Ethics Codes Collection (http://ethics.iit.edu/ecodes/) is a unique resource, comprising a curated collection of over 4,000 ethics codes and guidelines across a range of disciplines for over 40 years. With this project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the collection will serve as a more dynamic global resource for informing ethical decision making in professional, entrepreneurial, scientific, and technological fields, and inform critical research into the advancement of ethical practices in a rapidly changing world.

The research fellow will work with members of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions to develop a collection plan for the resource, build connections with research institutions and professional associations, and conduct research on the societal role of ethics codes.

Core qualifications for this position include a Master’s degree in philosophy and/or extensive experience in the fields of applied or professional ethics and an excellent record of quality scholarship and research. Experience in developing digital educational resources is a plus.

This is a two-year, part time position. Annual salary: $20,500

Deadline to submit applications: March 25, 2016

Please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, writing sample, and three references to laas@iit.edu. Inquiries may be sent to Kelly Laas, Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3241 S. Federal Street, Chicago IL, 60616. Email: laas@iit.edu.

Illinois Institute of Technology is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA employer committed to enhancing equity, inclusion and diversity within its community.  It actively seeks applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, veterans and other underrepresented groups.  All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment.

Illinois Tech’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) Receives Grant from MacArthur Foundation

Chicago – January 20, 2016 – Illinois Institute of Technology’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) has received a $200,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to enhance its highly regarded Ethics Code Collection (ECC). The ECC is a unique resource, comprising a curated collection of over 4,000 ethics codes and guidelines across a range of disciplines for over 40 years. With this generous funding from the MacArthur Foundation, it will serve as a more dynamic global resource for informing ethical decision making in professional, entrepreneurial, scientific, and technological fields, and inform critical research into the advancement of ethical practices in a rapidly changing world.

"This is an exciting step forward for the Ethics Center," says Elisabeth Hildt, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and professor of philosophy in Illinois Tech's Lewis College of Human Sciences. "The MacArthur Foundation's support will allow us to extend one of the center's historical strengths—its collection of ethics codes—into the future. We are also particularly looking forward to investigating critically the manifold societal functions of ethics codes." This revitalized resource, and the research and greater public accessibility it will bring, present the opportunity to inform the development of ethical standards and practices within professional and entrepreneurial communities across the globe, including countries with newly emerging democratic civil societies.

ECC currently is used by professors and students, by entrepreneurs and practitioners looking for guidance in how to resolve professional ethical issues in their daily work, by professional societies writing their own codes of ethics, and by consumers interested in finding out more about the ethical guidelines of professionals.

Funding from the MacArthur Foundation will provide the resources to embark on an extensive design strategy to improve the digital ECC, and will include tools such as better keyword search, sorting capabilities, comparisons, and downloading in different formats. Funding will also enable new research on the current and future roles of ethics codes within society, business, and technological innovation.

The Illinois Tech Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions is a leading center of research in science and engineering ethics since 1976, operating within the university’s Lewis College of Human Sciences

Atlantic Article on the American Astronomical Association's use of CSEP's Ethics Codes Collection in Revising Professional Code to Address Issues of Sexual Harassment

A recent article published by The Atlantic  discusses how the American Astronomical Society's Ethics Task Force used CSEP's Ethics Code Collection to revise their own professional code in response to allegations of sexual harassment against one of its members this fall. 

The Ethical Task Force met during the AAS's 227th conference this week and revised both its anti-harassment policy and the AAS code, drawing from examples of the American Sociological Association, the American Physical Association, and the American Institute of Physics, among others. The actions of the American Astronomical Association are an excellent sign that professional scientific societies are seriously confronting issues of harassment in the workplace, and we are glad that the CSEP's Ethics Codes Collection can be of help in this effort.

Published in Slate: When Phrenology Was Used in Court: Lessons in Neuroscience from the 1834 Trial of a 9-year-old.

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions' Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroethics, Geoff Holtzman,  has published a piece in Slate Magazine on the history of phrenology and its relationship to the use of neuroscience in courts of law.

When Phrenology Was Used in Court: Lessons in Neuroscience from the 1834 Trial of a 9-year-old.

Call for Abstracts: Does Neuroscience Have Normative Implications?

Call for Abstracts: Does Neuroscience Have Normative Implications? 

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago: April 15-16, 2016

Deadline for Submissions: February 1, 2016

Neuroscience seeks to understand the biological systems that guide human behavior and cognition. Normative ethics, on the other hand, seeks to understand the system of abstract moral principles dictating how people ought to behave. Can neuroscience provide insight into normative ethics, and help us better understand which human actions and judgments are right, and which are wrong?

Researchers across disciplines who are interested in this question are invited to participate in a symposium on April 15-16 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. Prospective presenters are asked to submit abstracts of 200-400 words by February 1st, 2016 to NormativeNeuroscience@gmail.com; authors will receive selection decisions by February 28^th. Invited speakers include James Giordano (Georgetown University) and Kurt Gray (University of North Carolina).

Presentations should take either 20 or 30 minutes and may address the question directly, or may address the question indirectly, by proposing research programs or discussing neuroscientific research thought to have normative implications. Authors skeptical of the normative significance of neuroscience are encouraged to discuss the scope and limits of neuroscience as it bears on non-normative moral and philosophical questions. Metatheoretical arguments of all kinds—either for or against the view that neuroscience has normative implications—are welcome.

One graduate student will be awarded $500 in travel funds on the basis of his or her submitted abstract. The symposium is funded by the Swiss Cogito Foundation, and organized by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology as part of the project Neuroethics: On the Interplay Between Neuroscience and Ethics. When submitting a proposal, please indicate beneath its title whether you would be interested in developing your presentation into a paper to be published in a collected volume edited by the symposium organizers (“For Collected Volume”) or not (“Not For Collected Volume”).

Questions regarding the symposium should be directed to symposium organizer Geoff Holtzman at NormativeNeuroscience@gmail.com.

QED: The Ethical Debaters Compete in Upper Midwest Ethics Bowl

On Saturday, November 14th, three members of IIT's student club, QED: The Ethical Debaters, took part in the Upper Midwest Regional Ethics Bowl at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, IL. The team debated eight different ethical scenarios with some of the top ethics bowl teams in the midwest, including Oakland University and Macalester College. Team members who participated were Alice Arnell, Todor Markov, and Reno Waswil. Congratulations to the QED Ethical Debaters!