ETHICALLY SPEAKING
An interdisciplinary speaker series on contemporary moral issues
Gene editing. Artificial intelligence. A changing climate. Intersections of technology, values and communities in our rapidly changing world raise important ethical questions. Join us for a series of lectures by nationally renowned researchers, thinkers and leaders who will explore contemporary issues, ethically speaking.
Schedule 2025-26
Life Without Free Will
Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D. • January 28, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, by Zoom
The vast majority of people (including philosophers) are “compatibilists,” believing that the world is a materialist place with determinist rules yet…somehow…we still have free will. In this talk, I argue strenuously that free will is a myth, completely incompatible with how we know that the biology of behavior works. Moreover, I argue that it would be a great thing if we all accepted this.
Professor Robert M. Sapolsky is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biology, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Stanford University, and a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. His most recent books are Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Worst and Best (2017) and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023).
Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6)
Januaryy 28-30, 2026 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Eastern, by Zoom
RegisTRATION LINK COMING SOON
The UCF Center for Ethics is a co-sponsor of this year’s edition of the international Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change conference series. Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6) will comprise presentations by disabled philosophers and their nondisabled allies whose cutting-edge research challenges members of the philosophical community to (1) think more critically about the metaphysical and epistemological status of disability; (2) closely examine how philosophy of disability is related to the tradition and discipline of philosophy; and (3) seriously consider how philosophy and philosophers contribute to the pervasive inequality and subordination that disabled people confront throughout society. The conference program will be posted here.
The Euthanasia Euphemism: On the Deceptive Use of ‘Euthanasia’ in Animal Research Protocols
Joel MacClellan, Ph.D. • February 26, 2026 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, by Zoom
RegisTRATION LINK COMING SOON
The routine killing of healthy animals at research endpoints is labeled “euthanasia,” but is not. This euphemism concerning millions of animal deaths annually misleads the public on the morally fraught issue of animal research. The historic and everyday meaning of “euthanasia” includes two individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions: (1) humane reason – the killing is for the good of the being killed, i.e. they are better off dead or alive, and (2) humane method – the sentient being is killed in a manner free of pain and distress. The U.S. Animal Welfare Act (1966) informs current federal guidelines for animal research, yet it requires (2) humane method but not (1) humane reason. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2020 position correctly defines euthanasia by including both provisions, but their definition is applied incoherently to include killing “unwanted” healthy animals. Euphemistic language at the highest levels of ethical oversight is deceptive and should change, tracking changing attitudes towards animals in the public imaginary.
Dr. Joel MacClellan is the Director of the Environment Program and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans with primary research and teaching expertise in Bioethics, broadly construed, and especially ethics at the intersection of animals & environment. A returned Peace Corps Volunteer from the Community Environmental Conservation Program in Panama, he has field experience on these topics via a USAID-funded green iguana conservation project. Dr. MacClellan’s work has been published in the Journal of Value Inquiry, Ethics & Environment and Between the Species. His ethics leadership is put in practice in various ways such as being Loyola’s representative on the Jefferson Parish Ethics and Compliance Commission, Coach of Loyola’s Ethics Bowl Team, the non-scientist academic on Loyola’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the ethicist on Loyola’s Institutional Review Board.
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Sponsors of Ethically Speaking
- Center for Ethics, UCF
- Colleges of Graduate Studies, UCF
- College of Science, UCF
- College of Community Innovation and Education, UCF
- CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, UCF
- College of Arts and Humanities, UCF
- Office of Compliance, Ethics, and Risk, UCF
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Physics
- Department of Philosophy
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Biology
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering