Applied Ethics Graduate Discussion Group

Friday, 19 June 2026, 2.20pm to 4.20pm

2 presentations, 1h each:

Student presenter: Noriko Katayama (Uehiro St Cross Scholar/ PhD student University of Tokyo)
Title: Patient-to-Staff Violence and Relational Safety in Japan: An Ethical Challenge in Post-Paternalistic Medicine
Abstract: This presentation introduces a work-in-progress paper that forms part of the introductory chapter of my doctoral thesis and is being developed for journal publication. The paper examines patient-to-staff violence in healthcare as an ethical and social issue in Japan.
Patient violence against healthcare professionals is widely recognised as a growing problem, yet existing approaches have addressed it primarily through the lens of occupational safety. This presentation proposes a different framing: patient violence is an ethical challenge constitutively connected to the transformation of the patient–healthcare professional relationship in post-paternalistic medicine. Drawing on a longitudinal literature review and historical analysis centred on Japan, I argue that the emergence of this problem in the 1990s is inseparable from the shift toward patient-centred care—a genuine moral achievement that has nonetheless left the burden of managing violence disproportionately on healthcare professionals. Engaging with Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice, I further examine why healthcare professionals’ experiences remain systematically underacknowledged in public discourse. The presentation concludes by arguing for a relational ethics that takes seriously vulnerability, mutual recognition, and responsibility within the patient–healthcare professional relationship.
 
Student presenter: Cristiano Leon (UOI visiting student/ PhD student Sapienza University of Rome)
Title: Sidgwick’s Disharmonious Utilitarianism
Abstract: Henry Sidgwick is generally regarded as one of the greatest moral philosophers of the nineteenth century. His reputation rests primarily on The Methods of Ethics, a work that has often been considered the most rigorous statement of classical utilitarianism and that remains central to contemporary discussions of moral philosophy. Consequently, scholarship on Sidgwick has largely focused on his contributions to ethical theory, particularly his intuitionism, his non naturalism, and his formulation of the dualism of practical reason. In this paper, I argue that such a reading is incomplete. Sidgwick was not only a moral philosopher but also a political philosopher and an economist. Alongside The Methods of Ethics, he published two substantial works, The Elements of Politics and The Principles of Political Economy. Yet these writings have rarely been integrated into a comprehensive interpretation of his philosophy.

Series: Graduate Discussion Group

Department: The Uehiro Oxford Institute (Department)

Host: Uehiro Oxford Institute

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