World Ethics Centers, Initiatives and Resources

Where do we start? So many pin drops to add on the a2ethics.org global ethics initiative map. And to tell you about. It is almost like expressing the sly futility embedded in the question that purportedly distracted the medieval scholastics: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? (And another distraction for you; if you want to wallow in even more futility, read the fascinating article entitled "Angels" by George MacDonald Ross about this topic. It is a five-cheeked cherub on the 1 to 5 cheeked cherub scale. "Angels" can be found at: http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/GMR/articles/angels.html).

Let's go Down Under. Oz has sent to America one of the most famous contemporary philosophers: Peter Singer. Yes, the Professor Singer who keeps reminding us that the affluent and even the barely better-off have a duty to give to the poor. He is also that Singer who had a big hand in publicizing what has become the animal rights movement by writing the ethics classic: Animal Liberation (not to be confused with Orwell's Animal Farm, though there may be some rich discussions there). Even though Singer has planted himself in American academia, there are plenty more philosophers out in eucalyptus land.

And many of them, including several of counsel from other lands, are involved with the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics in Canberra, Australia. For example, if you read their website list of ethics high foreheads thinking high thoughts at the Centre, people who like to talk about ethics like us would think we had entered ethics heaven (continuing with the angel theme from above). Or if ethics had a Nobel prize, we would just recommend to the Swedish nominating committee to just go to the Centre's website to select the winner.

Which brings up a serious matter. As you have quickly noted, we include only English speaking, former colonies of the British Empire, including our greatest concentration in the capital of the Empire itself: London. And the ones we mention, for example, "Philosophy Bites with Nigel Warburton," we believe, should be on this map, because they are exceptional resources.

Unlike the Swedish nominating committee for the Nobel prize, we cannot afford the translators we would need to figure out the many excellent ethics initiatives in the rest of the world. We are working on this, and hope a2ethics.org members, readers and listeners will help us out. We are more than willing to have our readers go with us on a junket to Paris to learn about French ethics initiatives. While we are waiting for a generous ethics disciple to pay our way along with our readers, we are relying on our website translation skills. Our Spanish consists of: "Bueno. Tienes usted un catarro?" (Good. Do you have a cold?) Our Czech sucks. Our Korean is as juche and self-sufficient as the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, who has more cooks than the North Koreans have food.

So cut us some slack and help out. Help us to join the world in order to get as many dancers on the head of the pin as we can.