Fifth Ex.phil. lecture

Today I have given the fifth lecture in Ex.phil. this Autumn, at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. The course is part of the bachelor in psychology as well as the year-long study in psychology. Today´s topics were Hume´s ethics and normative ethics, specifically utilitarianism and Kant´s duty ethics.

Fourth and fifth Ex.phil. lecture

Today I have given two lectures in Ex.phil. in the bachelor in psychology, the fourth and fifth lecture this term out of 12 in total. The topics were the fundamentals of ethics and normative ethics.

Chapter abstract: "The true value of “doing well” economically"

Below is my abstract, finished today, for a prospective book chapter to be written this Spring.

***

Chapter title: The true value of “doing well” economically

Author: Morten Tønnessen

  

Abstract:

Recent efforts to go beyond GDP as a measure of economic performance raise important questions about the nature of the economy, including: What is the best measure of a sound, flourishing economy? And what is the purpose of “doing well” in economic terms? One possible measure of the soundness of the economy could be the extent to which it results in better lives for humans – a thought that has inspired measures such as the HDI, among others. In the bigger picture, a sound, flourishing economy should also be consistent with good, and perhaps optimal, lives for non-humans, and well-functioning ecosystems. On this measure, economics should not be an altogether anthropocentric enterprise. To go beyond anthropocentric notions of economic performance, a degree of integration between economics, philosophy (normative ethics and philosophical anthropology included) and biology is required. A merely economic outlook can easily lead to commodification of each and every organism and natural resource, thus neglecting the agency, interests and intrinsic value of animals and other non-humans. To truly “serve all”, economists should acknowledge that there are economic stakeholders beyond humans, in the sense that the living conditions of practically all non-humans on this planet are today affected by human economic activities. This would make economics more compatible with current outlooks in normative ethics with regard to the value of animals, biodiversity etc., and could be part of a radical reconceptualization of the nature of the economy where economic value is situated within value theory in a wider sense.

6 hours of teaching

I am about to finish 6 hours straight of Ex.Phil. teaching - for the fourth Monday this autumn. The topic for today´s lecture (followed by two seminars) was normative ethics.

Lecture with ethics theme given at Sølvberget galleri

On Wednesday February 28th I gave the first of three lectures at Sølvberget galleri in relation to Eli Glader´s video art exhibition Vitner. This first talk was entitled "Nær eller upartisk? Etikk i mangfoldets tid". About 10 people were present.

Third lecture

Today I gave the third lecture in Examen Philosophicum at Department of social studies this autumn. The topic was normative ethics.

ZfS special issue on biosemiotic ethics delayed; appearing soon

Our special issue of Zeitschrift für Semiotik on biosemiotic ethics is somewhat delayed due to changes in the regular editorial and typesetting staff. The journal´s homepage says the special issue will appear as issue 1-2/2016 but only appear Spring/Summer 2017 (I think Spring is most likely). We received commented files from the regular editors about a week ago, and will quickly proceed to typesetting, around Christmas.

Lecture on normative ethics

Today I have lectured in Examen Philosophicum at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. The topic was normative ethics.

"Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism" finished and submitted

A few days ago I took part in finishing, and submitted

Beever, Jonathan and Morten Tønnessen, forthcoming, 2016. Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism. Zeitschrift für Semiotik. To be published December 2016.

4 hours of seminars

Today I taught for 4 hours in Examen Philosophicum at University of Stavanger´s Department of Social Studies. I gave two seminars, on the topic consequentialism and virtue ethics.

No contribution to Sofia proceedings (Introducing biosemiotic ethics)

Due to tough priorities before and after Christmas (with one full week of family holiday, Insh Allah), I have decided not to submit an article to the proceedings for the 12th World congress of semiotics (Sofia September 16-19th 2014) (see previous posts). My talk was entitled "Introducing biosemiotic ethics".

2 hours of teaching - normative ethics

Today I have been lecturing for 2 hours in the course Examen Philosophicum at University of Stavanger's Department of social studies. The topic of this lecture, the third this autumn, was normative ethics.

Abstract for 12th world congress of semiotics: "Introducing biosemiotic ethics"

A couple of days ago I composed and submitted my abstract "Introducing biosemiotic ethics" to the session "Biosemiotic ethics", which is to be held Friday September 19th at the 12th World Congress of Semiotics (Sofia, Bulgaria, September 16-20). See below.

Introducing biosemiotic ethics 

Morten Tønnessen, Associate professor in philosophy at University of Stavanger, Norway  

In this paper, which sets the scene for the session “Biosemiotic ethics”, I start out by outlining various contributions to biosemiotic ethics (Hoffmeyer 1993, Kull 2001, Tønnessen 2003, Beever 2011, Beever and Tønnessen 2013, Acampora 2014, Tønnessen and Beever, forthcoming), and also refer briefly to semioethics and existential semiotics. 

Next I ask: How does biosemiotic ethics differ from other approaches within normative ethics? Relatedly: How have contributions to biosemiotic ethics drawn on other approaches in normative ethics? In this second section of the paper I will particularly relate to Bentham 1823 and Singer 2002 [1975], and ask: In what ways does a biosemiotic ethics potentially take us beyond sentience-centered approaches? Does biosemiotic ethics represent a new form of consequentialism, or should it be placed within some other tradition? 

In the third and concluding section of the paper, I raise a number of questions which should be investigated in the future development of biosemiotic ethics, namely: What ramifications do different views on the semiotic threshold have within the context of normative ethics? Is there (something akin to) normativity in the very constitution of the Umwelt? Does the semiosphere at large (qua biosphere) have intrinsic value? And what, in terms of biosemiosis, is the origin of value?  

Acknowledgement: This work has been carried out thanks to the support of the research project “Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis” (EEA Norway Grants/Norway Financial Mechanism 2009–2014 under project contract no. EMP151). 

References 

Acampora, Ralph R. 2014. The (proto-)ethical significance of semiosis: When and how does one become somebody who matters? In Kadri Tüür and Morten Tønnessen (eds) 2014: The Semiotics of Animal Representations (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi), 343–362.
Beever, Jonathan 2011. Meaning matters: The biosemiotic basis of bioethics. Biosemiotics 5(2): 181–191.
Beever, Jonathan and Morten Tønnessen 2013. “Darwin und die englische Moral”: The moral consequences of Uexküll’s Umwelt theory. Biosemiotics 6(3): 437–447.
Bentham, Jeremy 1823. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (2^nd edition).
Hoffmeyer, Jesper 1993. Biosemiotics and ethics. In Nina Witoszek and Elisabeth Gulbrandsen (eds) 1993: Culture and Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Oslo: Centre for Development and the Environment), 152–176.Kull, Kalevi 2001. Biosemiotics and the problem of intrinsic value of nature. Sign Systems Studies 29(1): 353–365.Singer, Peter 2002 [1975]. Animal Liberation. New York: Random House, Inc.Tønnessen, Morten 2003. Umwelt ethics. Sign Systems Studies 31 (1): 281–299.
Tønnessen, Morten and Jonathan Beever, forthcoming (2015). Beyond sentience: Biosemiotics as foundation for animal and environmental ethics. In John Hadley and Elisa Aaltola (eds): Animal ethics and Philosophy: Questioning the Orthodoxy (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers).

Does the semiosphere at large have intrinsic value? and related questions

I have just posed three questions on ResearchGate:

Does the semiosphere at large (qua biosphere) have intrinsic value? 

Is there (something akin to) normativity in the very constitution of the Umwelt? 

What ramifications do different views on the semiotic threshold have within the context of normative ethics?

Teaching, September 30th

This Monday I taught for 4 hours in Examen Philosophicum, the introductory course in philosophy at University of Stavanger's Department of health studies. First 2 hours of teacher-assisted group work, then 2 hours of lectures on normative ethics, more specifically virtue ethics and /ethics of care/ (nærhetsetikk, with Levinas and Løgstrup).

"Beyond sentience" article in progress; follow-up discussed

The writing of "Beyond sentience: Biosemiotics as foundation for animal and environmental ethics", co-authored by Jonathan Beever and myself, continues. As reported in January the abstract for this text has been submitted to a prospective anthology in metaethics to be edited by John Hadley and Elisa Aaltola. The last we heard from the editors was that it is not completely certain that this book project will materialise, due to a lack of submissions. At any rate the deadline will only be at the end of the year.

Yesterday Jonathan and I talked via Skype to discuss our further collaboration on this piece. We agreed that we will write this text whether or not the mentioned book project materialises (and secondarily submit it to an ethics journal), becase this is a text that it is important to both of us to develop. We further sketched a time plan, divided into phases of thinking - reading - writing (completing by the end of the year), and discussed possible topical developments. It is quite likely that we will end up making this article primarily metaethical and a follow-up more normative.