About the Journal of Practical Ethics
Welcome to the Journal of Practical Ethics, an open access journal in moral and political philosophy (and related areas) from the Uehiro Oxford Institute, located at the University of Oxford.
Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024
Commentaries
Past emissions and distributive climate duties: A reply to my critics.
Axel Gosseries
2024-11-05 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024
On Axel Gosseries’ “What is Intergenerational Justice?”
Charlotte Franziska Unruh
2024-11-05 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024
Climate Justice and the Moral Relevance of the Past
Simon Caney
2024-11-05 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024
Latest Forthcoming Articles & Letters Posts
Together again: The value of our encounters, offline. Forthcoming article by Emily McTernan
Posted by Rachel Gaminiratne on 2025-07-16
Together again: The value of our encounters, offline [1] Abstract: This article is a protest against the trend towards ever greater online contact at the cost of, or as a replacement for, in-person interaction. Increasingly, meetings and events are ‘hybrid’ or take place entirely online. Even when physically near others in shared spaces like streets, parks and cafes, we are often glued to our [...]
Read MoreThe Moral Importance of Low-Welfare Species. Forthcoming article by Jakob Lohmar
Posted by Liz Sanders on 2025-05-16
Abstract: Many species seem to have much smaller welfare ranges than we do. Which importance should we assign to the welfare of these low-welfare species when we have to decide whether to benefit members of these species or other humans? In particular, should we ever prioritize low-welfare species when some of the most significant human goods are at stake? It could be argued that benefits for [...]
Read MorePromises and Consent. Forthcoming article by Arjan S. Heir
Posted by Liz Sanders on 2025-05-12
Abstract: Promises are forward looking; they create a duty to act as promised in the future that the promisor cannot readily revoke. In contrast, morally valid consent to other acts, such as sex, typically requires that one consent to the act when it occurs. A promise to perform an act that requires consent in the moment, such as a sexual promise, therefore seems morally problematic. For Hallie [...]
Read MoreThe challenges of using machine learning for organ allocation. Reply to Sinnott-Armstrong and Skorburg By Esther Braun, Noah Broestl, Dorothy Chou, and Robert Vandersluis. Published October 15, 2021, in response to: How AI can aid bioethics
Posted by JPE Editors on 2021-10-15
In their paper "How Can AI Aid Practical Ethics", Sinnott-Armstrong and Skorburg propose an AI system for kidney allocation based on the preferences of survey participants. Their proposal that AI systems trained on large-scale survey data will result in more “informed, rational, and impartial” outcomes is optimistic. In an earlier paper, Sinnott-Armstrong and others state that “aggregating the [...]
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