Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value

15/10/2026

Niklas Forsberg sat down for a conversation with Naomi Scheman (University of Minnesota) for a discussion of engaged philosophy, the public role of universities, and her overall work!
👉 Check out the full interview on the department Youtube channel https://youtu.be/NBs50zHhp7A?is=dOHf-RaOn8mTeUV8

12/10/2026

This *Wednesday* at 2pm in room CB01033, we'll be coming together with the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies for a joint seminar. Ryan Manhire will be giving a talk entitled "'Rational Resolution' to Deep Moral Disagreement: S*x, Gender, and Charges of 'Irrationality'."
For those joining online, this meeting will be on Teams rather than Zoom: rb.gy/clsolx

07/10/2026

Next week, two of our PhD students will be presenting their research at the Caring for Non-Humans conference in Prague! Nina Collin will be sharing "The Animal Ethicist Teaching ‘Persona’: Compartmentalizing Care and Education"; Cécile Rosat will present "The Feeling of Relational Responsibility & Narratives."

👉You still have a chance to join us for the upcoming conference, called Caring for Non-Humans: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Care among Animals, the Environment, and AI!

👉Deadline for registration is 1 October 2026.

In the conference, we will examine what it means to think and practice care in relation to animals, the environment, and artificial intelligence, and how limited care resources might be allocated among diverse beings and systems.

🐝Keynote speakers at the conference:

Maneesha Deckha (University of Victoria, Canada)
"From Reason to Relation: The Legal Promise of a Caring Family Framing for Animals"

Christine Hentschel (University of Hamburg, Germany)
"Caring for the 'not yet' after the 'too late'"

Patrick Butlin (Eleos AI, UK)
"Caring for Claude: LLM Personas as Potential Moral Patients"

🐝When: 12 to 14 October 2026
🐝Where: Prague, Czech Republic

For more info, program and registration, visit:
👉https://cetep.eu/caring-for-non-humans/
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👉Stále máte šanci se k nám připojit na nadcházející konferenci s názvem „Péče o ne-lidské bytosti: mezioborové pohledy na péči mezi zvířaty, životním prostředím a umělou inteligencí““!

👉Deadline pro registraci je 1. října 2026.

Na konferenci prozkoumáme, jak přemýšlet o péči a praktikovat ji ve vztahu ke zvířatům, životnímu prostředí a umělé inteligenci, a jak by mohly být v současné době omezené zdroje péče rozdělovány mezi různorodé bytosti a systémy.

🐝Keynote přednášející na konferenci budou:

Maneesha Deckha (University of Victoria, Canada)
"From Reason to Relation: The Legal Promise of a Caring Family Framing for Animals"

Christine Hentschel (University of Hamburg, Germany)
"Caring for the 'not yet' after the 'too late'"

Patrick Butlin (Eleos AI, UK)
"Caring for Claude: LLM Personas as Potential Moral Patients"

🐝Kdy: 12. až 14. října 2026
🐝Kde: Praha, Česká republika

Více informací, program a registrace na:
👉https://cetep.eu/caring-for-non-humans/

01/10/2026

Next Tuesday at 2pm, we'll be joined by Carme Isern-Mas (University of the Balearic Islands) for a talk entitled: "The Affective Injustice of Obstetric Violence."

For those joining online, the Zoom link can be found here: https://centreforethics.upce.cz/en/research-seminar

30/09/2026

As a part of the European Sustainable Development Week, the environmental philosopher Bram Büscher will be giving an online lecture this Friday October 2, from 13h - 14h30, entitled, "Beyond Development: Biodiversity conservation and the transformation of eugenics from ‘progressive’ societal improvement to neo-illiberal techno-engineering."

MS Teams Link: https://shorturl.at/jzAZI

Abstract: Eugenics, the pseudo-science of the ‘improvement’ of life, has gone through multiple transformations across its enduring lifespan. Recent literature emphasizes how eugenics is far from a pre-WWII phenomenon: it not only survived the war in ‘progressive’ forms that accompanied broader development ideas but is more recently making a comeback through new forms of science, technology and neo-illiberal movements and administrations. Related literature also shows how biodiversity conservation has been central to these transformations. In this paper, we bring these discussions together by reviewing the historical and contemporary connections between biodiversity conservation and the transformations of eugenics from the 19th century to the present. This allows us to add two crucial yet overlooked points that change how we think about conservation more generally. The first is how conservation, historically and currently, has often functioned as a ‘vanguard’ domain for experimenting with eugenical ideas and practices. We argue that this comes out most clearly in current forms of techno-driven conservation, which employs familiar social scientific arguments to pursue novel eugenical agendas. Second and unlike the 19th century, we argue that the current planetary ‘polycrisis’ moves eugenics from a concern with neoliberal ‘improvement’ of life to a focus on ‘sustaining’ certain forms life in the face of increasing disasters and threats of mass extinction. Here, eugenics should no longer primarily be understood as a form of illiberal, racist development, but rather as a form of neo-illiberal, biological ‘maintenance’. Eugenics, in short, is itself becoming a form of conservation.

29/09/2026

This afternoon at 2pm we'll be joined by Daniil Koloskov for a talk entitled "Conservative Revolution Today: Post-Liberalism and Common Good".

For those joining online, the Zoom link can be found here: https://centreforethics.upce.cz/en/research-seminar

21/09/2026

The Winter 2026 schedule for the Centre for Ethics research seminar series has just been released!

We'll be kicking things off tomorrow, September 22nd (2pm) with a talk from Naomi Scheman (University of Minnesota) entitled "Wittgenstein and Liberatory Praxis: A Conversation." Professor Scheman is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre.

Everyone is welcome to join--the Zoom link can be found here: https://centreforethics.upce.cz/en/research-seminar

16/09/2026

Many of the English language courses we offer through our MA programme, Ethics and Political Philosophy, are open for students from other disciplines and programmes to enroll in for credit--or even to attend just out of curiosity (with no assignment obligations)!

Here are two--and others can be found on STAG⭐️