Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics

Mission

The Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics (IAPE) aims to advance practical ethical and moral understanding, judgment, and decision making. It assists students and faculty of Ohio University and the larger community through interdisciplinary discussion, education and collaboration. 

Its particular focus is on applied and professional fields, where real-life ethical dilemmas and conflicts need to be analyzed and resolved. Through educational activities — such as its signature public lecture series, a podcast, and a newsletter service — it attempts to address the general public as well as students, scholars, and faculty at Ohio University.

"Applied ethics" includes moral, social and political philosophy, which is why the institute also contributes to public debates on social and economic justice, environmental issues, and socio-political questions.

Recent and Upcoming Speakers

IAPE Fall Lecture

'Overcriminalization and Dishonesty'

with Sorin Baiasu

Wednesday, Nov. 20
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Please register for this MS Teams event: tinyurl.com/CAPEFall24Lecture

Abstract: The paper begins with a presentation of one way in which the distinction between civil and criminal justice can be drawn. This distinction relies on a particular reading of Kant’s Universal Principle of Right, in the Metaphysics of Morals. The paper next considers the vexed issue of the appropriate standard for testing dishonesty and the risk of overcriminalisation that an inappropriate standard might bring about. I will make reference particularly to Ghosh, Hayes and Ivey. In the final part of the paper, I will draw some lessons for what an appropriate test of dishonesty should be, given the particular Kantian distinction between civil and criminal justice presented at the beginning of the paper.

Sorin Baiasu is Professor of Philosophy at Keele University and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Oxford University. His publications include: Kant and Sartre: Re-discovering Critical Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan 2011), Kant on Practical Justification: Interpretive Essays (edited with Mark Timmons, OUP 2013), Sincerity in Politics and International Relations (edited with Sylvie Loriaux, Routledge 2017) and Kantian Citizenship: Grounds, Standards and Global Implications (edited with Mark Timmons, Routledge 2025 forthcoming). His work has been financially supported by the British Academy, the European Commission and the European Research Council. This year, he has been awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant on "Kantian Justice: A Desert-sensitive Responsibility-enhancing Theory." 

IAPE Speakers and Events

Activities and Focus

The Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics emphasizes professional and applied ethics, particularly in departments and disciplines with a professional orientation, such as media and communication, engineering, medicine, nursing, and business, but also in the larger community. In addition to organizing events on ethics issues, the institute's goal is to contribute to both educating future professionals and providing workshops for faculty in these disciplines.

The institute also promotes well-informed, critical reflection about economic, social and political discourse across academic disciplines and with the wider public. In recent years, for example, the institute's guest lecturers have focused on voting rights, the status and condition of U.S. American democratic institutions, the challenges of social media (ab)use in the public sphere, and the topic of "fake news."

Leadership

The director from 2011 to 2016 was Dr. Alyssa R. Bernstein (Philosophy). From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Bernhard Debatin (Journalism) was leading the institute.

Dr. Christoph Hanisch began his tenure as the institute's associate director in 2020, taking over the directorship from Bernhard Debatin in fall of 2021. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Vienna, Dr. Hanisch did his graduate studies at the University of St Andrews and at Bowling Green State University, where he received his Ph D. in Applied Philosophy in 2012. After a postdoc and visiting professorship at the University of Vienna, Hanisch returned to the United States in 2016, starting his assistant professorship at Ohio University. Hanisch has published widely in the fields of ethical theory, applied political and social philosophy, and the history of moral philosophy.