Centre for Applied Ethics (CAE) at Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong Baptist University is a publicly-funded tertiary institution with a Christian education heritage. It is the sole surviving institution of 13 major Christian universities that once operated on the Chinese mainland,...

 was founded in 1992. It is the first of its kind established in China and one of the earliest in Asia. The Centre strives to stimulate critical reasoning about fundamental ethical concerns in contemporary society, to raise awareness of moral values, and to further strengthen the University's commitment to research and whole person education. To accomplish its mission, the Centre has been active in organizing various academic activities, publishing research results in different fields of Applied Ethics and developing a co-operation network with other institutions.

Background

The development of ethical centre is urgently needed in Hong Kong as she is undergoing unprecedented rapid economic and socio-cultural changes. The problem of ethical tension and disorientation is real. And although similar centres abound in Europe and North America, the results of their research are not always immediately useful to Asian societies in general and Hong Kong in particular. At the same time social-ethical issues relevant to them are not always identical to those in our situation. The centre, while seeking to formulate ethical solutions on the basis of universal principles, will be culturally sensitive in its endeavors.

Objectives

• The Centre is committed to research which covers the whole range of applied ethics. It is particularly concerned with different areas which are of high importance to our society.
• The Centre will take keen interest in avoiding any sort of ivory-tower mentality and make sure that its efforts benefit society and public at large. This will be achieved particular by organizing symposia, conferences and individual lectures open to the public and publishing research papers and articles in academic journals and taking up ethical topics in newspapers.

Members

Director: Prof. Lo Ping-cheung

Associate Director: Dr. Jonathan K. L. Chan

Research Fellows: Dr. Ip King-tak and Dr. Ellen Y. Zhang

Research Areas

The Centre actively promotes and coordinates research in the areas of bioethics, business ethics, professional ethics, and social ethics. It encourages the development of ethics across the curriculum.

Academic Activities

The "Public Lecture Series: Applied Ethics in Hong Kong" was launched on 1992 and regularly invites local and overseas scholars to deliver public lectures on bioethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, family ethics and etc. Distinguished international speakers, include Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...

 and Hans Küng

Hans Küng

Hans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...

. In order to foster research in the field of Bioethics in the Chinese context, since 2007 the centre has organized an annual Summer Class on "Sino-American Perspectives in Bioethics" and Symposium on "Bioethics from Chinese Philosophical/Religious Perspectives."

• International Symposium on Chinese Ethics of War and Peace: Traditional Approaches and Contemporary Problems (2011)
• Public Lecture on Good Lawyer, Bad Lawyer: Professional Ethics in China (2011)
• Public Lecture on Dragon and Dove: Nation-Statism & Christianity in Today's China (2011)
• Moral Theory of a Classical Economist: Adam Smith Case Study (2010)
• Public Lecture on Hospital Clinical Ethics Committee: What Went Right and What Went Wrong? (2010)
• Public Lecture on Health Care and the Common Good (2010)
• The Third Summer Class on Sino-American Perspectives in Bioethics (2010)
• The Fourth Symposium on Bioethics from Chinese Philosophical/Religious Perspectives (2010)
• Public Lecture on Cloning and Stem Cells: A Bioethical Analysis (2010)
• The Second Summer Class on Sino-American Perspectives in Bioethics (2009)
• The Third Symposium on Bioethics from Chinese Philosophical/Religious Perspectives (2009)
• Public Lecture on Why is Ethics relevant to Public Health? (2009)
• Public Lecture on Allocation of Medical Resources: What it means for Hong Kong (2009)
• Public Lecture on Caring for Nature: From Respect to Reverence (2008)

Research Publications

The Centre has published the International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine since 1998. It also publishes a newsletter annually to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the local academic community and other institutions worldwide. Some of the Centre’s recent publications include:

Books

• A Confucian-Christian Dialogue in Contemporary Context(2010)http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Books/A_Confucian-Christian_Dialogue.pdf
• Environmental Ethics: Intercultural Perspectives (2009)http://cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Books/Environmental_Ethics.pdf
• The Bioethics of Regeneration Medicine (2009)http://cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Books/The_Bioethics_of_Regenerative_Medicine.pdf
• Studies on Confucianism (2009) http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Books/Studies_on_Confucianism.pdf

Journals

• Chinese Bioethics: History and Logic (International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2010 Vol.8 No.2)http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Journal/Vol8_No2.pdf
• Reflections on the Principles of Bioethics (International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2010 Vol.8 No.1)http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Journal/Vol8_No1.pdf
• Life-Death Decision making and the Confucian Tradition (International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2009 Vol.7 No.2)http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Journal/Vol7_No2.pdf
• Confucian Bioethics and the Turn of Research Methodology (International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2009 Vol.7 No.1)http://www.cae.hkbu.edu.hk/Journal/Vol7_No1.pdf

Co-operation Networks

In order to establish and coordinate regional and international network of Applied Ethics, the Centre has co-organized symposia and conferences with other institutions such as:

• International Conference on Confucianism and Virtue Ethics (Co-organized with Peking University in 2010)
• International Conference on The Common Good for the 21st Century: Beyond Individualism and Collectivism —— A Sino–American Dialogue (Co-organized with University of Notre Dame in 2009 and 2011)
• International Conference on Constructing Chinese Bioethics and Deepening Health-care Reform (Co-organized with Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2009)
• Symposium on Family-Friendly Policy: A Holistic Approach to Enhance Hong Kong Families (Co-organized with Centre for Life Education in 2009)
• Symposium on Human Rights from the Perspective of Applied Ethics (Co-organized with Chinese Academy of Social Science in 2008)
• International Conference on Genethics in East Asian And Western Context (Co-organized with University of Oxford in 2007)
• Conference on Confucian-Christian Dialogue in Contemporary Contexts: Thought and Praxis (Co-organized with Shandong University in 2007)