International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Latest articles

28th May 2024

Automated Pain Detection

The emerging technology of AI-supported pain assessment not only has the potential to support external pain evaluations by medical and nursing staff, it also harbours a number of ethical problems. The risk of systematic discrimination against members of certain groups in being able to provide competent information about their own pain deserves particular attention here, as there is a long tradition of such epistemic injustices in the field of pain diagnosis and treatment.

Article 

14th May 2024

Doing Pluralism

Right-wing extremist and right-wing populist concepts of society are often condemned across the board without recognising that they offer their supporters a coherent and attractive meaning. Pluralist democrats need a clearer understanding of pluralism in order to reject forms of life that are anti-democratic and anti-pluralist, but also to accept or tolerate those who merely follow a different idea of the good life. The "Doing Pluralism" approach outlined here attempts to provide an impetus for this.

Article 

30th April 2024

The Shroud of Security

It is a much-trumpeted truism: there is no such thing as absolute security. In any case, the provision of security is limited in view of the associated material resources and the always limited knowledge. Moreover, security, as one value among many, must also be limited, as security ethicist Regina Ammicht Quinn emphasised.

Article 


Blog Categories

28th May 2024

Automated Pain Detection

The emerging technology of AI-supported pain assessment not only has the potential to support external pain evaluations by medical and nursing staff, it also harbours a number of ethical problems. The risk of systematic discrimination against members of certain groups in being able to provide competent information about their own pain deserves particular attention here, as there is a long tradition of such epistemic injustices in the field of pain diagnosis and treatment.

Article 

25th January 2024

Ethical reflection as orientation knowledge

In this blog article, the problem of a lack of orientation is framed as an area of tension between knowledge of availability and knowledge of orientation, with particular consideration of ethical reflection as a form of knowledge of orientation.

Article 

14th November 2023

Keeping Livestock in Africa

Not least to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 - Zero hunger -, there is much discussion and experimentation in the African context on the intensification of so called ‘neglected’ livestock species. In the following, we will examine the idea of intensification from a Sustainable Development and ethical perspective. 

Article 

30th April 2024

The Shroud of Security

It is a much-trumpeted truism: there is no such thing as absolute security. In any case, the provision of security is limited in view of the associated material resources and the always limited knowledge. Moreover, security, as one value among many, must also be limited, as security ethicist Regina Ammicht Quinn emphasised.

Article 

15th December 2023

Grotesque Women in the Media

The media exert a significant influence on body images. They confirm cultural ideals of beauty, disseminate idealised images and influence social norms and values. This article will focus on how the grotesque, repulsive, obscene body, of all things, can contribute to breaking down such powerful representational conventions and questioning normative ideas of femininity.

Article 

14th May 2024

Doing Pluralism

Right-wing extremist and right-wing populist concepts of society are often condemned across the board without recognising that they offer their supporters a coherent and attractive meaning. Pluralist democrats need a clearer understanding of pluralism in order to reject forms of life that are anti-democratic and anti-pluralist, but also to accept or tolerate those who merely follow a different idea of the good life. The "Doing Pluralism" approach outlined here attempts to provide an impetus for this.

Article 

15th December 2023

Grotesque Women in the Media

The media exert a significant influence on body images. They confirm cultural ideals of beauty, disseminate idealised images and influence social norms and values. This article will focus on how the grotesque, repulsive, obscene body, of all things, can contribute to breaking down such powerful representational conventions and questioning normative ideas of femininity.

Article 

21st February 2022

Consulting or "ethical coating"?

Ethics counseling in the health care sector is increasingly not provided by external experts, but by grassroots trained employees from within the company, who either act as counselors themselves or, for example, conduct an ethical case discussion (...)

Article 

16th April 2024

The Self as a Multispecies Being. Ethical Aspects of the Influence of Microbes on the Physicalness

Trillions of microbes live on and in the bodies of humans, animals and plants. They form the human, animal or plant microbiome. Accordingly, microbiomes do not exist independently of each other. Through the constant circulation and interaction of microorganisms, we humans are connected to each other and to our environment in a complex way. This raises numerous ethical questions. These are examined in the following blog post. The focus is on ethical questions in the context of human physicality.

Article