Assisted Suicide is a hotly debated topic in politics and in philosophy. Controversies revolve around questions such as: What legal restrictions, if any, should be imposed on assisted suicide? Is there a normative difference between assisted suicide and active euthanasia or are they normatively on a par? Is there a right to die, and if so, should we assist in suicide independently of patients᾽ states of suffering caused by severe illness? – These questions need to be addressed on the basis of a thorough conceptual analysis of notions such as "illness", "killing" and "helping to die".

How should we commemorate important historical figures who also perpetrated acts of great evil? Should monuments to controversial figures such as Cecil Rhodes, Robert Lee or Edward Colston, who embodied and defended imperialist and/or racist values, be toppled? Or does removing them amount to erasing history and should therefore be avoided? Should these monuments be contextualized but not removed? Answering these questions is part of a larger project "Ethics of Memory". They also relate to central questions of normative ethics, e.g. whether we should judge historical figures by today᾽s moral standards.

Reproductive techniques such as gamete donation and surrogacy give rise to puzzling questions about parenthood and parental responsibility. Is a sperm donor the child᾽s father? In what exact sense is a surrogate mother a "mother"? To whom should we ascribe parental rights and duties in cases of conflict, e.g. between a surrogate mother and the child᾽s intended "social mother"? In this project, we  investigate these questions by relating questions of applied ethics to the metaethical debate on role concepts.

According to a standard definition of "forgiveness", to forgive means to overcome vindictive feelings such as hatred or anger that have been occasioned when one has been the victim of an act of wrongdoing. The philosophy of forgiveness examines the nature and value of forgiveness and asks related questions such as: Who has a standing to forgive? Is there political forgiveness? What is an apology? – In this project, we will tackle these questions, paying particular attention to the nature of apologies and to the concept of "silent forgiveness".

Angesichts der gegenwärtigen Probleme im Gesundheitswesen erscheint die Möglichkeit, Gesundheitsversorgung mithilfe von digitaler Vernetzung und neuen Technologien zu verbessern als der nächste logische Schritt in einem Prozess des stetigen Wandels der Medizin. Da sich hinter dem Sammelbegriff „Digital Health“ inzwischen eine unüberschaubare Menge an Ansätzen zur Verschmelzung von verschiedenen digitalen Lösungen und Alltagsleben, Gesundheitserhalt sowie Krankheitsmanagement verbergen, soll im Rahmen des vorliegenden Projekts der Fokus weniger auf spezifischen Technologien, die im Gesundheitssektor Anwendung finden sollen, als auf die deren Verwendung zugrundeliegenden, gemeinsamen Wertkonflikte gelegt werden. Ziel ist es, einen Beitrag zur Sensibilisierung sowohl von Nutzer:innen als auch Hersteller:innen für die Art und Weise, wie die Implementierung und Nutzung digitaler Tools das insbesondere in der Philosophie vieldiskutierte „gute Leben“ mehr oder weniger subtil beeinflussen und welche Probleme hier entstehen, zu leisten.“