Onora O'Neill
University of Cambridge, Philosophy, Emeritus
- Short Biography Onora O’NeillOnora O’Neill combines work in political philosophy and ethics with public activit... moreShort Biography Onora O’NeillOnora O’Neill combines work in political philosophy and ethics with public activities. She has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 2000. She has served as President of the British Academy, chaired the Nuffield Foundation and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and has served on the Medical Research Council and the Banking Standards Board. She publishes on justice and ethics, accountability and trust, human rights and borders, the future of universities, and the ethics of communication. May 2018edit
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... about their own maxims? For discussion of the implications of Kant's insistence on our lack of self-knowledge, and hence of knowledge of our own maxims, for his account of virtue see O'Neill, “Kant's... more
... about their own maxims? For discussion of the implications of Kant's insistence on our lack of self-knowledge, and hence of knowledge of our own maxims, for his account of virtue see O'Neill, “Kant's Virtues,” 77–97, esp 89–91. ...
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The British population has been greatly affected by the rapid evolution in information and communications technology. In this digital society, we all leave extensive traces of our behaviour and interactions in the course of our normal,... more
The British population has been greatly affected by the rapid evolution in information and communications technology. In this digital society, we all leave extensive traces of our behaviour and interactions in the course of our normal, everyday lives. We have unprecedented opportunities to express ourselves, to connect and share knowledge, to be prosperous and inventive. At the same time, the digital society also presents new challenges, making citizens potential targets for fraudsters, criminals and possibly terrorists. The task for the police and SIAs has become more demanding as they try to stay abreast of rapid technological innovation and deal with threats that emanate from across the globe. It is important to ensure that the powers granted to these agencies to protect the public are explicit, comprehensible, and are seen to be both lawful and consistent with democratic values. The citizen’s right to privacy online as offline – and what constitutes a ‘justifiable’ level of intr...
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<jats:p>Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality of human beings... more
<jats:p>Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality of human beings without relying on theological claims or a metaphysical conception of the good. Kant's systematic, critical philosophy centres on an account of reasoning about action, that is practical reasoning, which he uses to derive principles of duty and virtue, a liberal and republican conception of justice with cosmopolitan scope, and an account of the relationship between morality and hope.</jats:p> <jats:p>Numerous contemporary writers also advance views of ethics which they, and their critics, think of as Kantian. However, some contemporary work is remote from Kant's philosophy on fundamental matters such as human freedom and practical reason. It converges with Kant's ethics in claiming that we lack a substantive account of the good (so that teleological or consequentialist ethics are impossible), in taking a strong view of the fundamental equality of moral agents and the importance of universal principles of duty which spell out what it is to respect them, and in stressing an account of justice and rights with cosmopolitan scope.</jats:p> <jats:p>Both Kant's ethics and contemporary Kantian ethics have been widely criticized for preoccupation with rules and duties, and for lack of concern with virtues, happiness or personal relationships. However, these criticisms may apply more to certain strands within modern Kantian ethics than to Kant's own ethics.</jats:p>
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Rights to compensation are much invoked and much disputed in recent liberal debates. The disputes are generally about supposed fundamental (natural, human or moral) rights to compensation, whose recognition and legal enactment would... more
Rights to compensation are much invoked and much disputed in recent liberal debates. The disputes are generally about supposed fundamental (natural, human or moral) rights to compensation, whose recognition and legal enactment would transform some lives. For example, special treatment in education or employment are claimed as compensation for past denials of equal opportunity; special consideration for Third World countries in aid and trade terms is claimed as compensation for the injustices of the colonial past.We can make ready sense of the idea of legal rights to compensation. Legal rights to compensation guarantee (some) recompense for damage suffered. The damage for which compensation is given may or may not be produced by wrongdoing; it may also be negligent or accidental or due to natural causes. In law, compensation is not always contingent upon the victim having suffered injury as well as harm, nor upon saddling a wrong-doer with the costs of compensation. Insurance policie...
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CONTEMPORARY BIOETHICS Bioethics is not a discipline, nor even a new discipline; I doubt whether it will ever be a discipline. It has become a meeting ground for a number of disciplines, discourses and organisations concerned with... more
CONTEMPORARY BIOETHICS Bioethics is not a discipline, nor even a new discipline; I doubt whether it will ever be a discipline. It has become a meeting ground for a number of disciplines, discourses and organisations concerned with ethical, legal and social questions raised by advances in medicine, science and biotechnology. The protagonists who debate and dispute on this ground include patients and environmentalists, scientists and journalists, politicians and campaigners and representatives of an array of civic and business interests, professions and academic disciplines. Much of the debate is new and contentious in content and flavour; some of it is alarming and some misleading. The first occasion on which I can remember a discussion of bioethics – we did not then use the word, although it had been coined – was in the mid-1970s at a meeting of philosophers, scientists and doctors in New York City. We were discussing genetically modified (GM) organisms: a topic of breathtaking novelty that was already hitting the headlines. Towards the end of the evening an elderly doctor remarked, with mild nostalgia, that when he had studied medical ethics as a student, things had been easier: the curriculum had covered referrals, confidentiality – and billing. Those simpler days are now very remote. During these years no themes have become more central in large parts of bioethics, and especially in medical ethics, than the importance of respecting individual rights and individual autonomy.
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Both consequentialist and non-consequentialist ethical reasoning have difficulties in accounting for the value of consequences. Taken neat, consequentialism is too fierce in its emphasis on success and disregard of luck, while... more
Both consequentialist and non-consequentialist ethical reasoning have difficulties in accounting for the value of consequences. Taken neat, consequentialism is too fierce in its emphasis on success and disregard of luck, while non-consequentialism seemingly over-values inner states and undervalues actual results. In Uneasy Virtue Julia Driver proposes a form of objective consequentialism which claims that characters are good if they typically (but not invariably) produce good results. This position addresses the problems moral luck raises for consequentialism, but requires some form of realism about traits of character. However, if our knowledge of mental states is ascriptive, this form of objective consequentialism may make excessive demands. Non-consequentialists may gain in so far as the theories of action to which they are typically committed are less demanding, and are built to take account of the typical or systematic connections between states of character and results of action.
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In Justice: Rights and Wrongs Nicholas Wolterstorff argues for the priority of rights over obligations, and suggests that assigning priority to obligations will take too little account of the wrongs suffered by many types of victim. In... more
In Justice: Rights and Wrongs Nicholas Wolterstorff argues for the priority of rights over obligations, and suggests that assigning priority to obligations will take too little account of the wrongs suffered by many types of victim. In this comment on the book I suggest various reasons for assigning priority to obligations, emphasise the importance of offering an account of imperfect as well as perfect obligations, and question the reading of Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork on which some of Wolterstorff’s arguments against the priority of obligations rely.
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<jats:p>Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality of human beings... more
<jats:p>Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality of human beings without presupposing theological claims or a metaphysical conception of the good. Kant's systematic, critical philosophy centres on an account of reasoning about action, which he uses to justify principles of duty and virtue, a liberal and republican conception of justice with cosmopolitan scope, and an account of the relationship between morality and hope.</jats:p> <jats:p>Numerous contemporary writers also advance views of ethics which they, and their critics, think of as Kantian. However, some contemporary work is remote from Kant's philosophy on fundamental matters such as human freedom and reasoning about action. It converges with Kant's ethics in claiming that we lack a substantive account of the good (so that teleological or consequentialist ethics are impossible), in taking a strong view of the equality of moral agents and the importance of universal principles of duty which spell out what it is to respect them, and in stressing an account of justice and rights with cosmopolitan scope.</jats:p> <jats:p>Both Kant's ethics and contemporary Kantian ethics have been widely criticized for preoccupation with rules and duties, and for lack of concern with virtues, happiness or personal relationships. However, these criticisms may apply more to recent Kantian ethics than to Kant's own ethics.</jats:p>
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We began rethinking informed consent by arguing that it is best viewed as a distinctive kind of communicative transaction, which agents may use to waive ethical and legal requirements in specific ways. For example, consent procedures can... more
We began rethinking informed consent by arguing that it is best viewed as a distinctive kind of communicative transaction, which agents may use to waive ethical and legal requirements in specific ways. For example, consent procedures can be used to waive norms that prohibit invasive action, thereby permitting medical treatment and research participation. Without ways of setting aside general prohibitions on invasive action, both medical treatment and research would be severely restricted. Patients would go without care; medical research would generally be impossible. In this chapter we turn to the ways in which informed consent can be used to waive prohibitions on action that would otherwise be intrusive rather than invasive . Where invasive action violates either others' bodily integrity (it may force or restrain, injure or harm, even mutilate, poison or kill), or their liberty or property (it may threaten, enter, steal, damage or destroy property), intrusive action , by contra...
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ABSTRACT Kant's moral philosophy is grounded on the dignity of humanity as its sole fundamental value, and involves the claim that human beings are to be regarded as the ultimate end of nature. It might be thought that a theory of... more
ABSTRACT Kant's moral philosophy is grounded on the dignity of humanity as its sole fundamental value, and involves the claim that human beings are to be regarded as the ultimate end of nature. It might be thought that a theory of this kind would be incapable of grounding any ...