Institute for Ethics & Society

Welcome to the Institute for Ethics and Society. Our researchers grapple with big questions: How do we best achieve human flourishing? What makes a good society? How can we live, and die, well? Based on the Sydney Campus, we’re a cross-disciplinary team of moral philosophers, bioethicists, and social scientists doing both pure and applied research.

Our transformative research aims to improve contemporary social, political, and individual life by exploring: how the virtues can strengthen civil society and support human flourishing; life, death, and the care we receive; and the role of religion and spirituality in political and personal life. We partner with a wide range of industry and community groups – from schools and hospitals to grassroots political and religious organisations. Informed by the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the IES pursues excellence in research, public engagement, and ethics education.

The IES has three Research Focus Areas:

Highlights

	Aristotle Fest 2024 Throughout 2024, the IES will host AristotleFest: a year-long suite of events focused on Aristotle’s ethics. AristotleFest 2024 is an exciting opportunity to take a deep dive into one of the most important, influential, and interesting philosophers in the history of ethics. All events will be held on The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Sydney campus (Broadway) and online. The events are: Reading Group on Aristotle’s Ethics (year-long) Conference — Becoming Good: Virtue & Moral Development in Ancient Ethics (August 1-2, 2024) Masterclass — Notre Dame Winter School on Aristotle’s Ethics (August 5-7, 2024) Confirmed speakers at these events include Roger Crisp (Oxford), Margaret Hampson (St. Andrews), Sukaina Hirji (Penn), Marta Jimenez (Emory), Rachana Kamtekar (Cornell), Rachel Singpurwalla (Maryland), and Antonio Ferro (Heidelberg).
	Institute for Ethics and Society Highlights of 2023
	IES Director Wins Large European Research Grant IES Director Professor John Lippitt has been awarded a substantial grant from the ERC-CZ Advanced Grants Scheme. The award, worth 45,000,000 CZK (approx. $3 million) and lasting for up to five years, is to investigate “Combatting Self-Righteousness: a Vice of the Digital Age". The grant will be run through a collaboration with the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value at the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic. To allow him to pursue this project, Professor Lippitt will be standing down as Director of the IES at the end of February 2024, after just over four years in the role. He will retain a half-time appointment in the IES, alongside a half-time appointment at Pardubice. A brief description of the project is below: Self-righteousness has a serious claim to be one of the vices of the digital age. The risks associated with echo chambers and political polarisation involve an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality, in which ‘we’ judge ‘them’ as not just mistaken but immoral. Yet despite a burgeoning interest in moral and intellectual virtues and vices in philosophy and related disciplines in recent years, self-righteousness remains no more than a footnote. Drawing on both moral philosophy and the social anthropology/sociology of digital media cultures, this project addresses a serious ethical challenge which threatens our ability to live together in a manner understanding and respectful of diverse opinions. The project’s main objectives are: To develop the first comprehensive study of self-righteousness as one of the most significant vices of the digital age, treating it as a vice of both individuals and groups To show the relevance of self-righteousness for understanding such phenomena as echo chambers and the forms of anger that fuel polarisation To explore how the vice of self-righteousness can be combatted, including proposals to promote the cultivation of countervailing virtues such as greater generosity of spirit in discourse to reduce social divisions.
	IES Postgraduate Course In Semester 2 2023, the IES delivered a brand new postgraduate course at The University of Notre Dame Australia, ‘EDUC6079 Character Education: The Virtues in Schools’. The course was been designed by IES researchers in the moral philosophy and ethics education research focus area, and featured some special guest appearances from our partners working on ethics education around the world.
	2023 Visiting Scholar – Piret Paal Professor Piret Paal, director of the Palliative Care Institute at the Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität (PMU), Austria, was a visiting scholar at the IES for two months in 2023. She undertook collaborative research with scholars in the Bioethics and Healthcare Ethics research focus area, and delivered the BHE Annual Lecture to over 70 attendees on the topic “Workplace Spirituality and Why it Matters.”
	IES Hosts Australian Association for the Study of Religion The Religion, Culture and Society research focus area at the IES hosted the Australian Association for the Study of Religion’s annual conference in late November, 2023. The conference brought over 60 researchers from around Australia to the University. Dr Elenie Poulos (Macquarie University) delivered the annual Penny Magee Lecture on the topic “Discourses of Religious Freedom in Australia: From Diversity to the Politics of Belief.’

Recent Events & Activities

What our partners are saying

“We partnered with the IES on a highly specific and innovative ethics education program in the hope that they would be able to help us measure its effectiveness in a meaningful way and give us concrete suggestions for improvement. They delivered on all of this and more by tailoring their expertise to suit our needs and ultimately delivering a high quality report, which has been an enormous help to the leadership of St Vincent’s as part of our broader ethics strategy. The staff at the IES have a high level of professionalism and mix this with a focus on adaptability and contextual sensitivity, which make them the perfect partners for work in professional ethics.”

Dr Dan Fleming

“The Scots College was founded to pursue 'higher learning for the common weal'. In our Research Centre's work with the brilliant team at the Institute for Ethics and Society, we've been inspired by their commitment to 'higher learning' through deep thinking about the questions of greatest substance - who am I? where do I fit in? how might I serve others? And we've been refreshed by their orientation to serving the 'common weal' by taking those questions into the cut and thrust of the real world. Providing our young people with better answers to the question of what it means to live a flourishing human life demands our best thinking. Partners like the IES help schools do that with rigour and grace.”

Dr Hugh Chilton

Director of Research and Professional Learning
The Scots College Sydney

"Whilst commercial finance broking was not featured in the recent Royal Commission into Financial Services, it nevertheless highlighted the need to be aware of the important role Ethics plays in this sector. CAFBA therefore commissioned the Institute for Ethics & Society to write a series of very relatable articles on the role of professional ethics in commercial finance broking. The Institute very quickly grasped the issues that commercial finance brokers faced, and provided a series of excellent articles that were very relevant and informative. These articles will only raise the standard of professionalism expected of our members."

David Gill

CEO, Commercial & Asset Finance Brokers Association of Australia Limited (CAFBA)

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Institute for Ethics & Society

Highlights

Recent Events & Activities

What our partners are saying