The Lockwood Memorial Lecture and medal presentation commemorate the life and work of Dr Michael Lockwood, recognising in a biennial event both senior figures and rising stars in practical ethics. Dr Lockwood worked both in the Faculty of Philosophy and the Oxford Lifelong Learning department (formerly Continuing Education), and it is appropriate to celebrate his commitment to both through a joint endeavour.
Time and date
Thursday 25 June ⋅ 17:00 – 18:30, followed by a drinks reception
Venue
Seminar Room 00.063, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
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The drinks reception will be held in room 00.056, which is just across from room 00.063.
Title: Is Ethical Divestment Possible?
Description
A common justification for ethical divestment rests on the claim that your owning stock in an immoral company makes you complicit in the company’s immoral behavior. But there’s something puzzling about this view. Suppose you own such stock. Ethical divestment requires you to sell it. If you sell it to someone, then they’ll own it. If it’s wrong to own the stock, then they’ll be doing something wrong. So if you sell someone the stock you own in an immoral company, you’ll be helping them do something wrong. And it seems wrong to help someone do something wrong. This seems to make it wrong for you to sell the stock to them. How, then, can a company’s immoral behavior make it wrong for you to own stock in the company but not make it wrong for you to get rid of the stock by selling it to someone else? How, in short, can ethical divestment be possible? I will discuss a variety of answers that have been offered to this puzzling question and propose an alternative response.
Registration
Link to Bookwhen
Access requirements
We are committed to making this event accessible. Please contact events@uehiro.ox.ac.uk to discuss any support requirements you may have.
Seminar Room 00.063 is an accessible, step-free ground-floor space in the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.
You can also find the access guide of the venue here.
