The Be Better Club

An informal ethics discussion group

Our “Be Better Club” is an informal but informed bi-weekly discussion group. Students, faculty, and staff interested in  contemporary ethical issues are welcome to participate. Topics are chosen by community interest and driven by your thinking.

Discussions are held by Zoom and are open to everyone. Join us at https://ucf.zoom.us/j/92600469259 Code: 674696

Current Schedule

 

Theme: To Give or Not To Give: Understanding Altruism, Its (Possible) Limits, and (Alleged) Costs of Trying to Do Good for Others

This term’s theme is giving and altruism. we’ll start exploring whether something like altruism is possible and what it’s origins might be. We’ll explore these questions at an individual and interpersonal level as well as the intersections of giving and political questions before considering a purely political kind of giving as it relates to foreign aid. As the term progresses we’ll shift from wondering “what is altruism?” and “is altruism possible?” to exploring the costs of giving and altruism with questions like “can philanthropy be bad for democracy?” and “does foreign aid rectify injustice or deepen it?” We hope — perhaps  altruistically — that you’ll enjoy these discussions as much as we do!

 

 

February 19, 2025

The Effective Altruism Movement; a Force for Good or Good Intentions Going Wrong?

In this discussion we’ll consider a possible obligation toward altruism that is at the foundation of the ‘effective altruism’ movement. The associated podcast episode has guests who support and reject some of the basic claims that motivates some people to devote large portions of their time, money, or expertise to doing good. We’ll ask, do we have an obligation to give more than me do? If so, how much? If not, why not? We’ll also explore whether effective altruism in particular is the right answer to some of these puzzles about altruism and obligation.

Framing podcast: Effective Altruism and its Critics (1:01:48), Hi-Phi Nation Season 6, Episode 5. Hosts: Barry Lam, Michael McCullough and guests Richard Yetter-Chappell,  Savannah Pearlman, Shakeel Hashim, and Seth Lazar.

 

March 5, 2025

Philanthropy and Democracy – Are There Political Costs of Giving?

In today’s discussion we will begin our turn toward exploring whether there might be a downside to giving. The episode involves a discussion with Rob Reich a political scientist who has argued that philanthropy has a deleterious effect on democracy. The interviewing host has effective altruist sensibilities and the discussion focuses on some of the political effects of individual giving. We’ll ask ourselves whether the costs of such giving do imply philanthropy is a problem that warrants a restriction on altruistic giving.

Framing podcast: Is Philanthropy Bad for Democracy? (47:12)Rationally Speaking Podcast Episode 221. Host Julia Galef and Guest Rob Reich.

 

April 2, 2025

International Justice and Foreign Aid – Correcting Historical Injustice or Something More Insidious?

Our final discussion of the spring term takes a political and international turn and turns our attention to giving at the international level. The conversation considers what justifies foreign aid — is it an obligatory responses to past injustice or perhaps based on a duty to aid those in need? The discussion will also explore whether such aid might have costs that undermine its purposes much like we’ve considered in past episodes about individual giving.

Framing podcast: Foreign Aid — or Injury (50:43), Philosophy Talk: Hosts: Ken Taylor, Debra Satz and Guest: John Welborn

Previous Discussions

February 5, 2025

Radical Altruistic Behavior and the Case of Organ Donation

This session will use a case of seemingly extraordinary altruistic behavior — the giving of a kidney to an unknown person — to dig deeper into what altruism and giving means. This episode takes an even more philosophical turn on the sorts of questions already raised last session. Do cases like unknown organ donors give support to the claim that radical altruism is possible? Are there moral lessons we can learn from these sorts of case? Is altruism of some degree an obligation?

Framing podcast: The Selfless Kidney Donor (45:43), Hi-Phi Nation, Season 5, Episode 5. Barry Lam, Michael McCullough and guests Penny Lane, Keiran Setiya.

Review on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/QyyaoBdpXD4


January 22, 2025

What is Altruism and is it Possible?

In this discussion we’ll base our conversation off an  episode the Radiolab hosts explore altruism. The story centers an evolutionary story about giving. We’ll think about the possible origin of altruistic behavior. The episode is story-driven but it explores questions about the very possibility of altruism — understood as non-self-interested giving.  This session will form a foundation for many of the discussions to come this term. We’ll ask what might explain our human capacity (tendency?) to give things to others? Is it possible to give in a truly altruistic way?

Framing podcast: The Good Show (1:05:41) Radiolab (2010) episode with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.

Review on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/SRjDvXKPqhE


November 13, 2024

Protest and (Un)Civil Disobedience
The election is over and it’s possible your preferred candidate lost. This possibility raises the question of what legitimate recourse to protect and disobedience might we have in a democratic society? Today’s discussion centers animal rights advocates in Australia but our preferred issue might be submitted instead. Can breaking the law in a democratic society be just or is it a violation of democratic values?

Review on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/NhChFj5hB_0


October 30, 2024

Democracy and the Ignorant Voter: Possible Solutions

One sometimes hears the claim that too many stupid people are voting for stupid things and that’s why we face so many political problems. In this episode of Hi-Phi Nation the hosts explore two proposed fixes to democracy. The first mandates voting to diminish the power of the ignorant while the second disenfranchises the misinformed voter. Might either be a solution to some of our ills?

Review on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/tVt3MlHOLC4


October 9, 2024

Democracy at Work – Economic Democracy

Democracy as an idea has often focused on the government of the city, state, or nation. However, some proponents of democracy have a wider set of situations in mind and advocate for ‘cooperatives’ in a variety of forms. Should there be more democracy at work? Does justice demand workers have a say in the companies where they work? Are worker cooperatives a natural extension of or bedrock to realizing democracy?

No Recording Available 


September 25, 2024

One Person, One Vote and the Idea of Majority Rule

Is realizing the idea of ‘one person, one vote’ a simple means of securing democracy? Is this idea of majority rule a necessity for a democratic system? Do issues like gerrymandering, voter purging, senate representation undermine democracy? Is the electoral college undemocratic because it allows the president to lose the popular vote?

Review on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/9bsIKuB0Mks


April 10, 2024

The Ethics of College Admissions

Is college campus speech free? Should university students be more tolerant of different perspectives and opinions? Is academic freedom under threat? This conversation will address the state of free speech on college campuses and its relation to central democratic values like autonomy and liberty.

Review on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhERM5peIJk


March 27, 2024

Decolonizing Higher Ed

What is the legacy of colonialism in higher education? This conversation will address whether universities have an ethical obligation to decolonize, who is responsible for taking action in that direction, and more.

Review on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15s5tMXptE


March 06, 2024

Campus Speech

Is college campus speech free? Should university students be more tolerant of different perspectives and opinions? Is academic freedom under threat? This conversation will address the state of free speech on college campuses and its relation to central democratic values like autonomy and liberty.

Review on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvaQUVtZI00


February 21, 2024

Teaching Divisive Concepts

What are “divisive concepts” and what makes them divisive?

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/Rxcy8T5QEag


February 7, 2024

Ethics Education for Computer Science

How should we teach ethics to computer science students to ensure responsible design of AI?

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/nNReyxeNquw


January 24 2024

Teaching in the Age of AI

How do the possibilities of AI change the nature of teaching in higher education?

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/9EvyN62E2DU


September 2023

AI and Data Privacy

We used to worry about privacy. Do we still? Should we? Thinking AI challenges to data privacy will drive this conversation.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/9EvyN62E2DU


March 31, 2023

Thought Experiments in Ethics

Thought experiments are designed by ethicists to support arguments. But how helpful are they?

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/p9BxhuKN2Mk


February 28, 2023

Wealth and Inequality

Wealth tax, universal basic income, automation and technology. What makes wealth distribution a justice issue?
FRAMING PODCAST: 15 October 2023. Wealth Inequality Escalation. Stats & Stories.


January 31, 2023

Water Scarcity and Ethical Access to Resources

When natural resources become threatened, how do we share ethically? We’ll talk tragic commons and changing climates.
FRAMING PODCAST: Baraka. 28 March 2022. A Drowning World: Kenya’s Quiet Slide Underwater. The Long Read.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/wO6Z_ekff6k


November 29, 2022

Critical R* Theory and FL HB7

Some concepts become politicized. We’ll discuss tensions between politics, policy, and power.
FRAMING PODCAST: Hayes. 15 June 2022. Understanding ‘How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics’ with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò. Why is This Happening?

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/_ofn7J1mnXM


October 25, 2022

Public/Private Partnerships

Do we make moral exceptions to otherwise tricky ethical issues during crises? Should we?
FRAMING PODCAST: Marks, J. 11 March 2022. The Perils of Partnership. UCF Ethically Speaking.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/XUym03B1PrQ


September 27, 2022

Extraterrestrial Environmentalism

What do we do about space trash, off-planet pollutants, and interplanetary invasive species? What is an environmental ethics of space?
FRAMING PODCAST:Adkins. 9 December 2021. Space Environmentalism. Celestial Citizen.


August 30, 2022

Rights and Personhood

What sorts of things have rights? How do we decide? We’ll talk babies, cephalopods, and artificial agents.
FRAMING PODCAST: Peña-Guzmán and Anderson. 7 June 2022. Animal Personhood. Overthink.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/KsXS_95kmjY


April 27, 2022

Humans, Inhumans, and the In-Between

Chatbots push us down the hill into uncanny valleys, but also might help us connect. UCF Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Stevie Carnell will join us to talk about her cutting-edge work on teh Ethics of Conversational User Interfaces.
FRAMING PODCAST: 5 May 2019. The Ethics of Chatbots. The Conversologist, Ep2..

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/UfTeshLHfQ8


March 30, 2022

Baby Xenobots and Other Potential Horrors

So xenobots procreated. We’ll talk implications, both positive and negative, of the rise of artificial life.
FRAMING PODCAST: Levin, M. 12 October 2021. Synthetic Living Organisms. UCF’s Ethically Speaking.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/luoCdohmcnY


March 16, 2022

Facial Recognition, AI, and You

Like the old western, there’s good, bad, and ugly here. We’ll talk them through and see where you stand.
FRAMING PODCAST:MIT. 12 October 2021. How AI is Destroying Our Moral and Civil Efficacy. Bold Stories. Future Focused.

Review on YouTube 


February 28, 2022

Rise of the Robots

As robotics become more advanced, robots play a bigger and bigger role in tasks that humans traditionally have done. What are the ethical limits, if any, to their rise?
FRAMING PODCAST: Beard, M. 25 December 2020. Should Robots Replace Humans? Short and Curly.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/joGlW5V4DBc


February 14, 2022

Morally Neutral or Morally Neutered?

The volume is up in the critique against perceived political bias in higher education. What gives? What does the future look like?

FRAMING PODCAST: Coaston, J. 8 December 2021. Can a New University Really Fix Academia’s Free Speech Problem? The Argument.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/g0qEUnOw634


November 9, 2021

Data Scraping and the IRB

What are the ethically relevant differences between data scraped from online social media and other human subjects data?
FRAMING PODCAST: Rodebaugh, T. and Leary, M. September 2014. More than meets the IRB – Social media research ethics: Considering the Facebook “emotional contagion” study. HRPO Podcasts.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/joGlW5V4DBc


October 26, 2021

AI and Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous systems challenge views of responsibility, blame, and agency. What should a future of ethical AI look like?
FRAMING PODCAST: Burnley, M. 01 April 2021. “A.I. in the Driver’s Seat.” A.I. Nation.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/KeeQTvwwYh0


October 12, 2021

Online Learning, Choice, and Equity

Cameras on or off? Attending live or listening later? How do we balance engagement, privacy, and choice for students learning online?
FRAMING PODCAST: Stommel, J. July 29, 2020. How to Be Together in Learning Online. Teaching in Higher Ed.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/_qTwoEaDnGo


September 28, 2021

Intellectual Property, Ownership, and Theft

What are the ethical concerns around intellectual property? What are their implications in new FL legislation like FL HB 7017 and 1523?
FRAMING PODCAST: Aronczyk, A. 26 June 2020. Seed Spy. Planet Money. After Dinner Conversation.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/rvLWgwOLSA0


September 14, 2021

Free Speech, Intellectual Diversity, and HB 233

What’s the relationship between intellectual diversity and free speech in academic contexts?
FRAMING PODCAST: Gladstone, B. 04 June 2021. There is No ‘Cancel Culture’. On The Media.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/phmqcB_6wbM


August 31, 2021

Vaccines, Variants, and Uncertainty

As we negotiate viral variants, what’s the right thing to do? How do we deal with ongoing uncertainty about a changing risk landscape?
FRAMING PODCAST: Baker and Maxmen. 04 June 2021. Coronapod: Uncertainty and COVID ‘lab-leak’ theory.

Review on YouTube https://youtu.be/ZYAloMFnlgI