Workshop, June 2013: “Does Freedom of Choice Threaten Health and Sustainability?”

The workshop “Does Freedom of Choice Threaten Health and Sustainability? Between Necessary Boundaries and Paternalism” took place at the WissenschaftsForum Berlin am Gendarmenmarkt on June 14-15, 2013. The event addressed the conflicting priorities of freedom, responsibility, and paternalism from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Workshop, January 2012: “Structural Elements of Ethical Consultation”

The Martin Luther University in Halle/Saale was the venue for the workshop “Structural Elements of Ethical Consultation” held on January 9-10, 2012. In addition to analysing conventional elements of case-based consultation, the event also used field reports to demonstrate the prospects of a suitable structural instrument for clinical ethical consultation. In order to differentiate ethical case-based consultation from other forms of consultation, particular emphasis was placed on the integration of ethical principles.

Conference, July 2011: “Medicine and Technology. Risk Awareness and Ethical Responsibility as a Consequence of Technological Progress”

The workshop “Medicine and Technology. Risk Awareness and Ethical Responsibility as a Consequence of Technological Progress” was held in Lutherstadt Wittenberg on July 11-13, 2011.

Workshop, December 2010: “Practical Ethics”

The Research Group’s second workshop took place in Berlin on December 9-10, 2010. Its focus was the potential institutionalisation of ethics in the fields of life sciences, medicine, technology, and political consulting.

Active in various areas of application, including medicine, technology, and academia, speakers hailed from disciplines including philosophy, political science, physics, and medicine. Their contributions dealt with a variety of issues associated with the topics of institutionalisation and political consultation.

Workshop, May 2010: “Applied Ethics – Practical Powers of Judgement”

Practical powers of judgement, as expressed by the ancient term phronesis, are indispensable to the assessment of moral conflicts and problems. Yet how are practical powers of judgement developed? Can they be learned? What strategies for the imparting them can be defined? Despite being a central element of Aristotelian ethics, phronesis is only defined in a formal sense therein. How can this ancient concept be used as a framework for the discussion of modern problems?

Focusing on applied ethics in areas such as life sciences, medicine, technology, the environment, and economics, this workshop held in Berlin on May 19-20, 2010 dealt with the dual question of how ethics can be imparted in specific areas of application in the fields of both student education and consultation.

The workshop topics were as follows:

• Health & Illness
• Technological Ethics
• Environmental Ethics