Faculty and Staff

Jonathan Beever

Jonathan Beever, Ph.D.

Biography

Jonathan Beever is Associate Professor of Ethics & Digital Culture in the Department of Philosophy and the Texts & Technology Ph.D. Program at the University of Central Florida. 

He is the founding director of the UCF Center for Ethics (founded Fall 2019), and the Program Director of the Theoretical and Applied Ethics Certificate Program. 

He previously held postdoctoral appointments in ethics at Penn State and Purdue University. He works in applied ethics, specifically at the intersections among digital ethics, environmental ethics, and bioethics, on issues including the ethics of biotechnologies, environmental bioethics, public and ecological health ethics, digital ethics, and questions of interdependence.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Philosophy from Purdue University (2012)
  • B.A. in Philosophy from University of Maine (2003)

Research Interests

Ethics (Animal, Environmental, Digital, Engineering), Environmental Bioethics; Simulation and Representation; Soundscape Ecology; Interdependence

Recent Research Activities

  • see attached CV

Selected Publications

Books

  • Beever, J. (Ed). The Horror of Relations: The Dark Side of Interdependence. Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield). Forthcoming Fall 2020.
  • Beever, J., McDaniel R., Stanlick, N. (2018). Understanding Digital Ethics: Cases and Contexts. Routledge.
  • Beever, Jonathan and Vernon W. Cisney (eds). 2016. The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Northwestern University Press.
  • Perspectives in Bioethics, Science, and Public Policy. 2013. Jonathan Beever and Nicolae Morar (Eds.). Purdue University Press.

Articles/Essays

  • Beever, J., & Taylor, L. “The Ethics of Public Commenting: Manipulation, Data Risk, and Public Participation in E-Rulemaking.” Bioethics. (forthcoming Fall 2021).
  • Beever, J., Kuebler, S.M. & Collins, J. Where ethics is taught: an institutional epidemiology. International Journal of Ethics Education (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-021-00121-7
  • Spector-Bagdady, K., Beever, J. (July 07, 2020). “Rethinking the Importance of the Individual within a Community of Data.” Hastings Center Report. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1112.
  • Upvall, M., Nguyen-Thanh, T., Beever, J., & Huy, N.V.Q. (June 2020). “An Interprofessional Approach to Assessing Research Ethics Capacity in Vietnam: Implications for Nursing Education.” Nursing Education Perspectives. [online first June 26, 2020] doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000683.
  • Beever, J. (May 2020 [first online Dec. 2019]). “Sonic Liminality: Soundscapes, Semiotics, and Ecologies of Meaning.” Biosemiotics (special edition on Hybrid Natures) 13(1): 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09371-x.
  • Hess, J.L., Beever, J., Zoltowski, C.B., Kisselburgh, L., Brightman, A.O. (Feb. 2019). “Enhancing Engineering Students’ Ethical Reasoning: Situating Reflexive Principlism within the SIRA Framework.” Journal of Engineering Education 108(1): 82-102.
  • Beever, J.& Morar, N. (August 2018). “The Ethics and Epistemic Onus of ‘One Health’,” Bioethics.10.1111/bioe.12522.
  • Beever, J. & Tønnessen, M. (Aug 2018). “Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism.” Zeitschrift fur Semiotik 37(3-4): 31-54.
  • Beever, J. & Whitehouse, P.J. (2018). “The Ecosystem of Bioethics: Building Bridges to Public Health.” Jahr: European Journal of Bioethics 8/2(16): 227-243.
  • Beever, J.& Tønnessen, M. (2017). “Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism.” Zeitschrift fur Semiotik 37(3-4): 31-54.
  • Beever, J. (Jan. 2017). “The Ontology of Species: Commentary on Kasperbauer’s ‘Should We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon? The Ethics of De-Extinction’.” Ethics, Policy, and Environment http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2017.1291825.
  • Beever, J.(2016). “The Mountain and the Wolf: Leopold’s Uexkullian Influence.” Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities 4(1): 85-109.
  • Beever, J.& Morar, N. (2016). “The Porosity of Autonomy: Social and Biological Constitution of the Individual in Biomedicine.” American Journal of Bioethics16(2): 34-45.
  • Beever, J. (Fall 2016). “Teaching Ethics Ecologically: Decision-Making Through Narrative.” Teaching Ethics 16(2): 195-206.
  • Beever, J.& Morar, M. (2016). “Bioethics and the Challenge of the Ecological Individual.” Environmental Philosophy13(2):215-238.
  • Beever, J. (2016). “Teaching Ethics Ecologically: Decision-Making Through Narrative.” Teaching Ethics 16(2): 195-206.
  • Beever, J.& Brightman, A.O. (2016). “Reflexive Principlism As An Effective Approach for Developing Ethical Reasoning in Engineering.” 2016 [online Feb 2015]. Science and Engineering Ethics22(1):275-291.

Book Sections/Chapters

  • Kisselburgh, L. and Beever, J. (Feb 2022). “The Ethics of Privacy in Research and Design: Principles, Practices, and Potential” in Modern Socio-Technical Perspectives on Privacy. Knijnenburg, B., Page, X., Wisniewski, P., Lipford, H.R., Proferes, N., Romano, J. (Eds.). Springer. 
  • Brightman, A.O., Beever, J., Hiles, M.C. (Nov 2019). “Next-Generation Ethical Development of Medical Devices: Considering Harms, Benefits, Fairness, and Freedom,” In Next Generation Ethics: Engineering a Better Society. Abbas, A.E. (Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Hess, J., Beever, J., Strobel, J., Brightman, A.O. (2017). “Empathic Perspective-Taking and Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering Ethics Education.” In Philosophy and Engineering: Exploring Boundaries, Expanding Connections: 163-179, Byron Newberry, B., Michelfelder, D., Zhu, Q.(Eds.). Springer .
  • Beever, J. (2016). “Have Hope, Not too Much, Mostly for Plants: Hope in Environmental Moral Literacy.” In Ecology, Ethics, and Hope: 111-126, Brei, A. (Ed.). Rowman and Littlefield.
  • Beever, J. (January 2016). “Symbolic Violence as Subtle Virulence: A Philosophy of Terrorism.” In Re-Visioning Terrorism: A Humanistic Perspective: 163-179, Lawton, B. & Coda, E. (Eds.). West Lafayette, Purdue University Press.

Book Reviews

  • Beever, J. (August 2020). Book review. “Review of Nicholas Shrubsole’s What Has No Place, Remains (2019).” Environmental Philosophy 17(1): 183-186.

Awards

  • see attached CV

Activities

  • see attached CV

Courses

Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
13033 PHI3681 Ai and Big Data Ethics Video Livestream (VL) Tu,Th 01:30 PM - 02:45 PM Unavailable
No Description Available
19611 PHI6679 Digital Ethics Video Livestream (VL) Th 06:00 PM - 08:50 PM Unavailable
No Description Available
19669 PHM5035 Environmental Philosophy Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable
No Description Available
Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
83504 PHI3640 Environmental Ethics Mixed Mode (M) M,W 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM Unavailable
No Description Available
83125 PHI5627 Theoretical and Applied Ethics Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable
No Description Available

No courses found for Summer 2025.

No courses found for Spring 2025.

No courses found for Fall 2024.

No courses found for Summer 2024.

No courses found for Spring 2024.

Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
81447 ENG6005 Diss Research Design in T Online Video Content (V) Tu 06:00 PM - 08:50 PM Available

This course complements our research methods course in helping students prepare for the initial stages of the dissertation preparation and writing process, including problem framing, research question development, methodology determination, argument design and structure, and situating the project within larger research contexts. Our approach will center around responsible research practices as a lens for thinking through these stages of the dissertation process.

Students in this class will:

Distinguish between dissertations and other research forms and practices,
Identify organizational and project management strategies for dissertation writing, Deepen engagement with the ethical foundations of research processes and practices, Network with other students at and around stages of the dissertation process, and Gain basic familiarity with research funding opportunities.
80642 IDH3600 Hon Case Studies in Ethics In Person (P) Tu,Th 03:00 PM - 04:15 PM Available

Ethical issues are everywhere. This course introduces in an interdisciplinary, case-study based approach to contemporary ethical issues across a wide range of key contexts including education, engineering, law, medicine, relationships, politics, technology, and the environment. As participants in this course, students will conduct significant research on emerging cases developed by the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (https://www.appe-ethics.org/about-ethics-bowl-appe-ieb/.  Students will also write position papers applying creative and critical thinking skills, theories and concepts from philosophical ethics, present and defend positions on those cases both individually and in groups, and have the opportunity to engage those cases with colleagues from other institutions. Through this work, students will develop their ethics literacy and critical thinking skills, argumentation and writing skills, and civic engagement experience.

Through work in this course, students will:

  1. Demonstrate intersections of of personal, societal, and professional dimensions of ethical life,
  2. Cultivate ethics literacy through building knowledge of major ethical concepts and theories applied the examination of interdisciplinary contemporary cases in ethics,
  3. Apply creative problem-solving strategies to complex ethical issues,
  4. Actively engage in ethical dialogues by critically discussing and evaluating moral issues, 
  5. Articulate effectively, argue persuasively, and think critically about moral judgments, and
  6. Develop skills in research and written and verbal expression.
  7. Take responsibility for and ownership of their own personal ethical development.
81263 PHI5627 Theoretical and Applied Ethics Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Available

In this online course we will take a wide and topical look at a survey of theoretical and applied ethical issues through reasoned discussion, conceptual analysis, and critical writing. Our approach will not assume any expert-level knowledge of traditional ethical theories but, instead, will take a broadly pluralistic perspective on ethical inquiry and decision-making. My rationale for guiding you by this perspective is that ethical issues, here in the 21st century, are not the domain of solely philosophers but, rather, of an extensive community of inquirers including ethicists, scientists, and policy-makers of all sorts. Our job in this course is to think carefully and critically about ethical issues and to develop strategies for helping others do this same.

Participants in this course will:
1. understand and identify instances of embedded ethics, broader impacts, and research integrity as they apply to a range of perspectives and disciplines,
2. develop an ability to apply ethical reasoning skills to examples of each of those three domains of research ethics through case-based analyses,
3. and acquire pedagogical skills in ethical inquiry through developing, delivering, and assessing presentation materials on relevant ethical issues drawn from your home disciplines and/or individual interests.

Students who participate in PHI5627 will gain experience in leading discussions about ethical issues and will be encouraged to begin to identify ways to develop peer mentoring on these important topics. I anticipate that you will actively contribute to the course through discussion and development of unique topics or case studies.

No courses found for Summer 2023.

Updated: Jan 17, 2024