2012 Barry Taylor and David Lewis Philosophy Lecture: Free Will as Moral Competence

Do recent discoveries of neuroscience prove that we have no free will? Some neuroscientists claim that free will is an illusion. But according to Dennett, this claim rests on a mistaken understanding of free will and moral practices.

How far would you go to be better than you are?

Medical bionics have improved dramatically over the last 60 years and will eventually be able outperform functional limbs and organs. This will give us an opportunity for physical and mental enhancement and raise unprecedented legal, social and ethical issues.

Professor Robert Shepherd will provide a snapshot of currently available and trialled technologies, as well as a glimpse into the future. Andrew Alexandra will examine the philosophical and ethical implications of these possibilities on the individual and on society.

Do bad ethics lead to bad economic outcomes? Bad ethics are defined hedonically as the infliction of pain for private advantage. The infliction of pain is often justified by "Just World Theories", which state that everyone gets what they deserve. Market liberalism (and its theoretical underpinning in neoclassical economics) is a Just World Theory of this kind. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments Adam Smith explains the reluctance to inflict pain as being motivated by reciprocity. His account depends on an assumption of innate virtue, and a more realistic one is developed on the basis of signalling. As an example, the ethical and economic failure of the American health system c. 1970-2010 is described in terms of the shift in policy norms from the medical ones of "first do no harm" to the market-liberal norm of "let the buyer beware" (caveat emptor).

Dr Gillian Whiteley, visiting UK artist, curator and author of ‘Junk: Art and politics of Trash’ (based at Loughborough University School of the Arts), will introduce a series of talks in conjunction with the Regimes of Value exhibition.

In this lecture, artists Ryan Foote, Ash Keating and Slow Art Collective, will join Dr Gillian Whiteley and Jodi Newcombe to discuss a range of conceptual, ethical and practical approaches undertaken by artists who engage with or maintain an environmentally sustainable art practice.

Increasingly, professional actors are required to enact real people on stage and on screen. Over the last ten years the major award ceremonies have reflected the public and industry obsession with performing real people and celebrated actors' skills in this respect: lately, Daniel Day Lewis. Dominant actor training still presumes that character is created from a purely imaginative realm but the testimony from actors playing real people suggests a realm of conflicts and ethical conundra which actors are dealing with on their own and trouble-shooting for themselves.

What are your political and ethical responsibilites as an actor towards the subject you are playing? How is your performance affected if you meet the person in question or their family members/community? Is resemblance to your subject important? Is a real person more unknowable than a fictional character? What do you do if you disagree with the portrayal of your subject?

Mary Luckhurst has interviewed some of the world's most famous actors about these and other questions and will share her thoughts and theories on this fascinating and underwritten subject.