Ethics Tune Up Melbourne

Please note you are now booking for Melbourne workshops.

About the series 

Ethics Tune Up is an innovative and engaging masterclass series from The Ethics Centre that will take your ethical skills to the next level. These workshops are an opportunity to extend your knowledge of ethics and learn how you can apply these principles in your life. 

Facilitated by leading philosopher Dr Tim Dean, these two-hour workshops will be equally enjoyable and informative as they help you navigate today’s complex ethical terrain and guide you towards living a good life. There are no prerequisites to join! 

ETHICS TUNE UP: Ancient wisdom for today 

Melbourne – 25 September 6pm – 8pm AEST 

What can Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics teach us about living a better life today? 

Even though they lived over 2,000 years ago, the wisdom of ancient philosophers is still just as relevant today as it was then.  

This workshop will introduce you to three prominent ethical perspectives from ancient Greece and Rome and show you how you can apply them to live a more ethical life.  

Aristotle will help us uncover the ultimate goal of life and show how we can become better people. Epicurus will challenge our assumptions about which desires are worth pursuing and help us to unshackle ourselves from the fear of death. And the Stoics will teach us how to control what we can and learn to endure what we cannot.  

You’ll share the session with other curious participants, who are willing to delve deeper into the mess and complexity of what it means to be human. 

Places are limited to ensure everyone can participate. 

So, tune in to tune up and hopefully we can all do life just that little bit better. 

ETHICS TUNE UP: Free speech and the limits of tolerance  

Melbourne – 2 October 6pm – 8pm AEST 

Despite what some might say, there are few free speech absolutists in the world. Most of us cherish free speech, but we acknowledge there are limits.  

We might recoil against government censorship yet want the voices in our social media feeds that are spreading disinformation to be silenced. We might cheer on radicals who are willing to challenge prevailing views – until those views are the ones we hold to be true. Even those who endorse the most expansive notion of tolerance have to decide whether they will tolerate the intolerant. In this workshop, we’ll go back to first principles and explore at why we value free speech, look at the forces that challenge it today and probe the limits of tolerance in our everyday lives.  

You’ll share the session with other curious participants, who are willing to delve deeper into the mess and complexity of what it means to be human. 

Places are limited to ensure everyone can participate. 

So, tune in to tune up and hopefully we can all do life just that little bit better. 

ETHICS TUNE UP: Ethics obstacle course 

Melbourne – 9 October 6pm – 8pm AEDT 

Even the most robust ethical framework needs to be stress-tested from time to time.  

Otherwise we can become complacent and assume we don’t need to reflect on or question our moral intuitions, possibly leading to unethical decisions.  

This special Tune Up workshop will help you road test your intuitions and your favourite ethical frameworks by putting them through an obstacle course of the most famous – and most curly – thought experiments ever devised by philosophers, from the trolley dilemma to the experience machine to the utility monster and more. Don’t miss out on an unforgettable night that will be equal parts infuriating, enlightening and fun. 

You’ll share the session with other curious participants, who are willing to delve deeper into the mess and complexity of what it means to be human. 

Places are limited to ensure everyone can participate. 

So, tune in to tune up and hopefully we can all do life just that little bit better. 

What previous participants say

“Very interactive, lots of examples to ponder.”

“I feel I now have a framework and a tool kit for considering how to act and an awareness of how easy it is to make ill-considered decisions. I would like to be able to use this tool kit to find answers to ethical dilemmas in the future that are right for me.”

“[I enjoyed] the thought-provoking content and willingness of audience to participate and engage. Dr Tim Dean was an engaging speaker, skilfully covering the material and always responding to audience comments in respectful, friendly and thoughtful way.”

Speaker

Dr Tim Dean

Tim is a public philosopher, speaker and writer. He is Philosopher in Residence and Manos Chair in Ethics at The Ethics Centre. He has a Doctorate in philosophy from the University of New South Wales on the evolution of morality and specialises in public philosophy, ethics and critical thinking. He is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and the author of How We Became Human. He is the recipient of the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals’ Award for his work on philosophy in the public sphere.