Children Benefit from Practical Philosophy Lessons

January 7, 2012

Philosophy is often considered the province of the highly educated. However, a new study from Great Britain suggests that schoolchildren make better moral judgments and more informed decisions when they are taught to engage in philosophical debate.

The study, led by Claire Cassidy of Strathclyde, followed more than 130 school-aged children who were given lessons in practical philosophy. The study found that the children showed improvements in their listening skills, demonstrated increased respect for others and were more able to view issues from a variety of perspectives. In addition, the children learned to analyze problems and make more thoughtful decisions.
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Moral Operating System a Must in a Changing Technological World, Asserts Google’s Horowitz

December 18, 2011

In this video, David Horowitz, professor of philosophy and cognitive science, as well as Google’s official In-House Philosopher, presents his idea for a “moral operating system” to guide individual and collective decisions about how to develop and use technology.

Over the past few decades, technology has developed to the point where users have the ability to gather intensely personal data about private citizens without their knowledge or permission and to use that data to predict the behavior of individuals. Horowitz equates data with power and asserts that it is the job of developers to think about how their technology will be used and to consider the ethical ramifications of that use.
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Experimental Philosophy Shines Scientific Light on Free Will [Study]

December 13, 2011

For thousands of years, philosophers have used logic and debate to try to uncover the answers to ethical questions. Over the last ten years, however, researchers have begun exploring philosophical questions using the same research methods social scientists have been using for decades.

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Prison Philosophy: How A Teacher Freed A Prisoner’s Mind

December 8, 2011

Damon Horowitz’s official title at Google is In-House Philosopher/Director of Engineering. When he’s not occupied at Google, he busies himself teaching philosophy, among other things, at Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and San Quentin State Prison. In this video, he relates an experience he had with one of his students at San Quentin.

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Morality Experiment: Would You Take A Life to Save Five? [Study]

December 8, 2011

Is it OK to do the wrong thing if doing it can prevent something far worse from happening? Can morality ever be relative? These are the questions researchers who conducted an experiment at the Michigan State University posed to participants.

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