Digest Week 4 Trinity Term 2026

Medical Humanities Event 

The Integrity of the Human Species: Comparative Legal Perspectives

Speaker: Naz Gün (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales)

Date: 18 May, 1 – 3pm 

Venue: Seminar Room 63, Schwarzman Centre

Convenor: Jonathan Price, St Cross College

Abstract: The integrity of the human species is a concept that raises questions at the intersection of medicine, ethics, philosophy, and also law. From a legal perspective, the notion of the integrity of the human species refers to the protection of the genetic identity of the community of human beings from a transgenerational standpoint. It aims to safeguard both present and future generations in order to preserve the « essence » of the human species, by limiting genetic interventions that could alter its fundamental characteristics. However, how has this « essence » been defined by law? 

At the international level, the integrity of the human species is reflected in a range of standard-setting instruments, such as UNESCO declarations and, at the European level, the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention). In France, as an extension of the principle of human dignity, the Civil Code states that no transformation may be made to genetic characteristics with the aim of modifying a person’s descendants. Nonetheless, certain genetic interventions remain permissible, provided that they pursue a therapeutic purpose and do not give rise to heritable modifications. 

This seminar seeks to examine how international actors, particularly within intergovernmental organisations, and French legislators have defined and interpreted the notion of the integrity of the human species since the 1990s, how and why this framework has evolved through successive legal reforms, and how it compares with the corresponding legal framework in the United Kingdom. 

Finally, this seminar aims to explore whether the definition of the integrity of the human species is a subjective social construct that evolves according to the time and place in which it has been developed. It will examine how different legal systems have addressed the same ethical questions and how disciplines outside of law have contributed to the creation of norms and definitions. 

Avicenna Reading Group

Convenor: Ibrahim Safri

Date: Tuesday, 19 May, 2–3:30pm

Venue: Magdalen College, McFarlane Library

The theory of time remains one of the most complex and significant subjects of inquiry, central to both philosophical and physical discourse globally. Throughout the history of world philosophy, this concept has been continually refined, spanning Late Antiquity and Neoplatonism through to Islamic, Medieval, and Early Modern traditions. Within the global corpus of Arabic philosophy, diverse interpretations of time have emerged, shaped by three primary perspectives that influenced Islamic medieval conceptions of this theory. This reading class will focus on Avicenna’s The Physics of The Healing, in which he presents various notions of time before establishing his own account.

Our objective is to engage in a profound reading of Avicenna’s thesis to determine the extent to which his theory of time represents a departure from Aristotelian thought, a continuation of the Peripatetic tradition, or an innovative synthesis. We will discuss how his contributions facilitated the development of this concept within the context of global philosophy.

Text: Avicenna, The Physics of The Healing; a Parallel English-Arabic Text. Translated by: Jon McGinnis. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2009. Chapter 10: Beginning the discussion about time.

History and Philosophy of Science Reading Group

Date: Tuesday 19 May, 4pm - 5pm

Venue: Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

The History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) Reading Group, which is a joint venture of the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology and the Faculty of Philosophy, will continue on even weeks in Trinity term. This term we are reading a book manuscript by James Ladyman, Nick Norman and Vanessa Seifert entitled A Philosophical History of Chemistry.

Anyone is free to join, but attendance is limited to the capacity of our booked room. Please write to the co-conveners (Alex Aylward (History, alexander.aylward@history.ox.ac.uk) & Sam Fletcher (Philosophy, sam.fletcher@merton.ox.ac.uk)) for further information.

If Consciousness is biological, can AI be conscious?

Speaker: Ned Block (NYU)

Date: Tuesday 19 May, 4:15pm-6:15pm

Location: St John’s College, Garden Quad Auditorium

Abstract: Does consciousness have a biological basis, and if so, does that preclude consciousness in AI? This question is central to understanding whether we may have moral obligations toward artificial systems.

Further information: There will be a reception following the talk; to assist with planning, advance registration is requested at the following site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ned-block-if-consciousness-is-biological-can-ai-be-conscious-tickets-1988009831923

Book talk 

Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI

Speaker: Carissa Véliz

Date: Wednesday 20th May, 5:00 – 6.00pm

Venue: Oxford Martin School Lecture Theatre and Online

Today’s computer scientists play the same role as the oracles of the ancient world and the astrologers of the Middle Ages. Modern predictions not only advise on war, crop output, and marriages, but algorithms and statisticians also now determine whether we can get a loan, a job, an apartment, or an organ transplant. And when we cede ground to these predictions, we lose control of our own lives.

In this powerful, refreshing new look at the many ways prediction shapes our everyday lives, University of Oxford Professor Carissa Véliz explains how putting too much stock in others’ predictions makes us vulnerable to charlatans, con artists, dubious technology, and self-deception. Examining a wide range of subjects both personal and societal, including medicine, climate, technology, society, and others, Véliz uncovers a number of insights: predictions about humans tend to be self-fulfilling; more data doesn’t guarantee better outcomes; AI is more likely to increase risk than decrease it; and a free and robust society requires not more prediction, but better preparation.

To register your attendance in-person click here

To register to watch live online click here 

To view a recording of the event click here

Oxford Seminar of Philosophy of Science

Great Causatives Have Great Consequences

Speaker: Prof. Julian Reiss (Johannes Kepler University Linz)

Date: 22 May 2026, 6:00-7:30 PM

Venue: Ryle Room, Schwarzman Centre 

Convenor: Yotam Harel

Abstract: Since Elizabeth Anscombe’s inaugural lecture at Cambridge University, it has been well known among philosophers that natural languages provide multiple ways to express causal relationships other than ‘cause’ and its closest cognates such as ‘causes’, ‘causing’ etc. Anscombe’s 'small selection’ of so-called ‘causatives’ (words that express causal relationships) was: "scrape, push, wet, carry, eat, bum, knock over, keep off, squash, make (e.g. noises, paper boats), hurt". Though well known, the consequences of this circumstance are still underappreciated. The main goal of this paper is to discuss a number of philosophically significant consequences of the grammar of causatives. Among other things, there is no fully generic causative, one that expresses nothing but ’the’ abstract causal relationship. Even ‘cause’ itself has a number of more specific implications not shared by other causatives. ‘Make’ is sometimes described as the prototypical causative (and not ‘cause’!), but even ‘make’ has connotations that aren’t shared by other causatives. Natural languages allow of different mechanisms to construct causative phrases. Anscombe’s list contains ‘lexical’ causatives where the idea of causation is built into the semantics of the verb itself. ‘Morphological’ causatives turn a verb into one that expresses causing by adding a prefix or suffix or other kind of change to the word stem. They exist in English only as remnants of Germanic construction in word pairs such as lie/lay, sit/seat, fall/fell. ‘Analytical' causatives add a verb clause to the main verb: the child burped vs the father made the child burp. Which verb clause is used has important consequences for the meaning of the whole phrase, cf. she forced him to take the poison vs she let him take the poison. The paper concludes with a discussion of the consequences of these facts for philosophical ideas about causation.