School of Philosophy

US President Donald Trump has failed to protect his citizens from the ravages of COVID-19 and should be judged harshly for it on election day, according to a pandemic ethics expert at The Australian National University.

Dr Ben Bramble from the ANU School of Philosophy said Australia and New Zealand’s success in containing the spread of COVID-19 has exposed the irresponsibility of President Trump and his government.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to ask difficult questions about the economy, our health and the value of life itself. Pandemic Ethics, a new book by Dr Ben Bramble from the ANU School of Philosophy shows us how a philosophy can help us to make sense of these questions and find the best answers writes Adam Spence.

As they released the modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind Australia’s social isolation policies this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy were guarded.

They emphasised the limits of scientific models, and how they could easily be misinterpreted.

This is not surprising. Many people don’t have a clear understanding of what scientific models are, and what we can and can’t expect from them.

Last week the head of Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency, Randall Brugeaud, told a Senate committee hearing an updated version of Australia’s COVIDSafe contact-tracing app would soon be released.

Designing Australian values into artificial intelligence systems will be the focus of a new research project launched at The Australian National University (ANU), in a keynote featuring Professor Shannon Vallor of the University of Santa Clara and Google.

Professor Geoffrey Brennan has been awarded the 2018 Gutenberg Teaching Award, in recognition of Geoffrey’s long commitment to and innovation in teaching, and the study of philosophy, political sciences and economics.

As consumers and communities, we seem more aware than ever of issues surrounding animal welfare. But how do we understand what is best for the enjoyment and quality of life of animals in our care? Is what seems intuitive, and perhaps obvious to us from a human standpoint, quite different to what animals really want?

The brains, and hence minds, of animals evolved to complement their bodies. The diversity of those bodies, and their histories, tell us something about the nature and origins of the mind. This lecture will discuss a range of cases, with special attention to the octopus.