Special thanks to Archie Stapleton of the Modus Ponens Institute and TKEthics for the superb extended interview with Yours Truly. If you have the time and interest, check out the whole thing. Otherwise, Archie has kindly hyperlinked to the various topics, so feel free to jump straight to the section on the critique that philosophy encourages indecision, or my take on the role of religious moral reasoning in Ethics Bowl (and the public sphere generally), or on metaethics (in what way do moral claims have objective truth values – more on my thoughts on that here), or AI in education and Ethics Bowl. Enjoy!
00:00 Who Is Dr. Deaton? + Ethics Bowl to the Rescue
01:37 How Dr. Deaton Got Into Philosophy
05:17 What Is Ethics Bowl?
08:42 Saving Democracy by Transforming Debate
12:11 Is Philosophy Too Passive?
16:20 Religious Reasoning in Ethics Bowl
25:25 Metaethics: Are Moral Claims True?
35:30 Nihilism, Free Will, and Moral Meaning
39:16 AI Ethics: Superintelligence & Alignment
47:25 AI in Education: Cheating & Assessment
53:38 Should Ethics Bowl Teams Use AI?
55:54 Case Analysis: Professor Using ChatGPT
1:03:16 Do Ethical Theories Belong in Competition?
1:10:27 Is It Wrong for Professors to Use AI?
1:15:30 AI in Essay Competitions
1:20:13 What’s Next for MPI & TKEthics?
1:23:31 Closing Thoughts