Advances in science and their translation into technologies and technical capabilities have brought forth new and unfamiliar ethical questions. Indeed, it can be argued that they compel a fresh enquiry into the fundamental question of what constitutes a human being. Science and technology today have shaken up the traditional frameworks of this question: the nature and limits of a body, a gender, a community, society, to name just a few. New knowledge is giving rise to unprecedented situations whose very “ethicity”, to use the Belgian philosopher, Jean Ladrière’s, term, is obscured and rendered difficult to discern. The CETS aims at clarifying the new questions that have been created by technological innovation. Members of the CETS are dedicated to sharing their reflections on ethical and social questions created by cutting-edge technological change.
Within this context, The Centre for New Questions in Ethics, Technology, Society (CETS), at Dominican University College, sees itself as an open space of research and dialogue, both on the theoretical and practical level. The centre views its primary focus in articulating and deepening research aimed at clarifying the new ethical questions and potential responses that technological and scientific advances are presenting to individuals, communities, and society. Its mandate will revolve around three axes:
- Philosophical research,
- Practical training,
- Dialogue and advice
How to reach us
You can reach us by sending an email to marie.sassine@dominicanu.ca
News and Events
CETS Publications
Structure
Based at Dominican University College, the Centre is composed of the Executive Director (Marie Antonios Sassine) and the Director of Research (Iva Apostolova). The Centre reports directly to the President of Dominican University College.
Marie Antonios Sassine, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Dr. Marie Antonios Sassine’s primary areas of focus are phenomenology, continental philosophy, philosophy of science, and Islamic and Arabic philosophy. She has given conferences and published articles on the creative imagination in Ibn’Arabi and Philo of Alexandria, on Jan Patocka and Plato, as well as on Husserl and Jean Ladrière and their critique of technique. Her current research focuses on technology as a specific relation to truth, its mathematical underpinnings, and their consequent transformation of public and social spaces.
Email: marie.sassine@dominicanu.ca
Iva Apostolova, Ph.D.
Director of Research
Dr. Iva Apostolova holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa. Her main areas of research are Analytic Philosophy, especially the philosophy of the early analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell, Feminist Thought, and Applied Ethics (especially Biomedical Ethics). Recently, she has been working on issues in philosophy of memory and philosophy of personal identity. Dr Apostolova has publications on euthanasia, the role of women in the military, animal rights and compassion, disability and ageing, caring masculinities, the metaphysics and epistemology of neutral monism, as well as the relational account of memory.
Dr Aposolova has formal training in the methodology of Philosophy for Children with one of the founders of the program, Dr. Ann-Margaret Sharp.
People
CETS will rely on two groups whose Members are drawn from outside the university and who have a recognized theoretical or practical expertise in the subject matter:
Scientific Committee
- Philippe Coppens, Ph.D.
Full Professor of Philosophy, Université catholique de Louvain, Centre de philosophie du Droit; Director of Research at the FNRS - James A. Whitlock, Jr., MD.
Neurologist, US Department of Veterans Affairs - Jorge Leandro Rosa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Porto, Portugal - Roberto Wu, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC – Brazil)
External Advisors
- Daphne Meredith
(Former) Deputy Minister of Western Diversification and of the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO), Government of Canada - James A. Whitlock, Jr., MD.
Neurologist, US Department of Veterans Affairs - Roseann Runte, Ph.D.
President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation
Research & Activities
CETS primary areas of focus:
- Philosophical research in such areas as the relation of technology to truth, the relation of gender and ageing, political participation and leadership, the agency of medical robots, to name just a few. The centre will organize academic conferences and symposia offering alternative interpretative frameworks to inspire new research.
- Practical training of students, as well as young professionals working in different fields related to the focus of the centre. The centre will lead workshops and training seminars dealing with recent case studies from the fields of health care ethics, biotechnology, military ethics, public ethics, and computer ethics, among others.
- Dialogue and advice. The centre will be a hub for focus groups oriented toward effective organizational decision-making. The workshops the centre will offer will aim at developing habits and capabilities of analysis and decision-making in diverse contexts, including situations not yet encountered.