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Institute of History and Archaeology

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School of Theology and Religious Studies

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College of Foreign Languages and Cultures

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Viljandi Culture Academy

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Dean's Office

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Institute of Education

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Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies

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School of Economics and Business Administration

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J. Liivi 4, 50409 Tartu
Institute of Psychology

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Näituse 2, 50409 Tartu
School of Law

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Institute of Social Studies

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Lossi 36, 51003 Tartu
Narva College

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Raekoja plats 2, 20307 Narva
Pärnu College

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Ringi 35, 80012 Pärnu

Dean's Office

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med [at] ut.ee

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Ravila 19, 50411 Tartu
Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine

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Biomeedikum, Ravila 19, 50411 Tartu
Institute of Pharmacy

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Nooruse 1, 50411 Tartu
Institute of Dentistry

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Institute of Clinical Medicine

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L. Puusepa 8, 50406 Tartu
Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health

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Institute of Sport Sciences and Physiotherapy

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Jakobi 5–205, 51005 Tartu

Dean's Office

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ltt [at] ut.ee

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Vanemuise 46–208, 51005 Tartu
Institute of Computer Science

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J. Liivi 2, 50409 Tartu
Estonian Marine Institute

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Mäealuse 14, 12618 Tallinn
Institute of Physics

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Institute of Chemistry

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Ravila 14a, 50411 Tartu
Institute of Mathematics and Statistics

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Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology

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Riia 23, 23b–134, 51010 Tartu
Tartu Observatory

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Observatooriumi 1, Tõravere, 61602 Tartumaa
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Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences

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Institutions

Library

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Youth Academy

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University of Tartu Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden

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University of Tartu Press

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Tartu University Hospital

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University of Tartu Foundation

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Ülikooli 18, 50090 Tartu
View all other units

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Applications and social-political import of practice-based philosophy of science

Estonian Science Foundation, Personal Research Grant " The Unity of Normative Discourse: Between Reasons and Responsibility"

Duration: 01.01.2013 - 31.12.2016.
Projecti leader: Francesco Orsi.

Loe edasi

The project aims to understand in what sense and to what extent judgments of good and bad, of right and wrong, of duty and prohibition, form a unified category of thought and discourse which we might call ‘normative’. The project investigates two basic questions:

1) Is there anything fundamentally in common among different kinds of normative judgments, e.g. about value and about duty, or moral and aesthetic ones?;
2) is there anything fundamentally in common among moral judgments, when these originate from radically diverging moral outlooks?

With regards to the first question, we explore the idea that the notions of fitting attitudes, or reasons for attitudes, might be what unifies diverse normative judgments. With regards to the second, we explore the idea that moral judgments are unified by the peculiar responsibility that an agent incurs in making such a judgment.

Estonian Science Foundation, Personal Research Grant "Speech that silences speech: mechanisms and solutions"

Duration: 01.01.2015 - 31.12.2016.
Project leader: Alexander Davies.

Loe edasi

There are various reasons to protect freedom of speech. Doing so: furthers the autonomy of citizens' decisions on public matters; is a precondition for self-government; and is said to help citizens get at the truth. However, how one can protect speech becomes a vexed issue when one realizes that the free speech of some can silence the free speech of others. For in that case, if the government simply abstains from silencing anybody, they will indirectly contributed toward the silence of some. This project investigates two things. Firstly, it investigates mechanisms by means of which speech can silence speech. Secondly, it investigates what is the best way to handle speech that silences speech, given the general reasons for protecting free speech.

Protecting the interests of single parents: reducing poverty in the weakest part of the society

Project duration: 2014-2015
Project leader: MTÜ Naiste Tugi-ja Teabekeskus
Representative of Department of Philosophy of University of Tartu: Kadri Simm
Financing scheme: EEA and Norway grants

Efficiency and justice in distributing kindergarten places mechanism design

Project duration: 2014-2015
Project leader: Kaire Põder (TLÜ)
Representative of Department of Philosophy of University of Tartu: Kadri Simm
Financing scheme: EEA and Norway grants

ERMOS project: "Verbal and Ontological Disputes in Everyday Life"

Duration: 01.09.2012 - 31.08.2014

Budget: 64 100 EUR

Grant holder: dr. Alexander Davies

Arguments between interlocutors sometimes turn out to be examples of "talking past one another" or "merely verbal disputes." Pursuing such arguments once their status has been revealed is essentially pointless. Mistaking an argument for a merely verbal dispute, or vice versa, is of substantial significance. Firstly, whether a dispute is merely verbal is consequential for rational debate between scientists and other investigators. Scientists who reject an opposing view or criticism because the debate is merely verbal can undermine critical evaluation of their ideas and fruitful exchange with their peers (see for example Kuhn (1962)). Secondly, distinguishing genuine from merely verbal disputes is consequential for the legitimacy of exclusion from discussion in wider social spheres and therefore social justice (see in particular Fricker (2007)). A standard account of when an argument is pointless is this: two interlocutors are talking past one another when they diverge in their understanding of the words used in the discussion. However, Sundell (2011; forthcoming) has shown convincingly that this is insufficient for the dispute to be a case of "talking past one another." My research divides into two sub-projects. The first aims to develop an improved account of "talking past one another" in light of both Sundell's observations and an accurate account of linguistic meaning (see Travis (1985)). The second aim is to apply this account to philosophical disputes, taking disputes about ontology as a test case. It has long been proposed that philosophical ontological disputes are pseudo-problems (see Carnap (1956)). I will investigate whether the view of language and verbal disputes that my first project makes available can shed new light on this proposal.

COST Action TD0904 TIMELY: "Time in Mental Activity: theoretical, behavioral, bioimaging and clinical perspectives"

Duration: 2010-2014

Estonian representative: Bruno Mölder

Project website

ETF grant: "Linguistic Reality and its Psychological Basis"

Duration: 01.01.2012 - 31.12.2015

Budget: 12 000 EUR

Grant holder: prof. Daniel Cohnitz

Project website

"Eksperimentaalsed“ filosoofid on viimasel ajal väitnud, et tänapäeva analüütilises filosoofias praktiseeritav osutusteooriate arendamise ja valimise viis on sügavalt puudulik. Viga tulenevat sellest, kuidas keelefilosoofid kasutavad keelelisi intuitsioone, kui nad valivad erinevate osutusteooriate vahel. Eksperimentaalsed filosoofid on välja selgitanud (sotsiaalpsühholoogiliste uuringutega), et intuitsioonid, millele filosoofid tunduvad toetuvat oma teooriavalikul, varieeruvad suuresti keelekogukonna sees. Eksperimentaalsete filosoofide ettepanek on loobuda osutusteooriatest üleüldse ja hakata deflatsionistideks osutuse suhtes. Pole üllatav, et see viis kuumade metodoloogiliste vaidlusteni intuitsioonide kasutamise üle keelefilosoofias ja vaidlusteni selle üle, mis peaks olema osutusteooriatele sobiv aines. Samaaegselt leiame me samasuguse metodoloogilise vaidluse lingvistika filosoofias. Ka siin keskendub vaidlus tavaintuitsioonide rollile grammatikateooriate konstrueerimisel ja nende teooriate sobivale ainesele. Taotletav projekt "Keeleline reaalsus ja selle psühholoogiline alus" püüab lahendada metodoloogilisi ja ontoloogilisi probleeme mõlemas valdkonnas. Selleks pakutakse välja analüüs tavakõnelejate grammatilisusotsustustele ja osutusotsustustele, mis konstitueerivad osutus- ja grammatikateooriaid, ohustamata sealjuures teooriate ainese objektiivsust. See peaks aitama selgitada lingvistika ning psühholingvistika vahelist suhet ning ühtlasi aitama arendada õiget metodoloogiat intuitsioonide ja muude psühholoogiliste andmete kasutamiseks lingvistikas ja keelefilosoofias.

ETF project: "Mind without mental states?"

Duration: 01.01.2012 - 31.12.2015

Budget: 11 610 EUR

Grant holder: dr. Bruno Mölder

The aim of the project is to examine the implicit assumption in the contemporary philosophy. We call it the Folk-Mentalist Assumption. According to this assumption, the mind is solely composed of mental states as individuated by folk psychology, a framework that consists of a special mental vocabulary as well as rules and principles for employing this vocabulary. The assumption seems unable to account for mental phenomena such as mental processes occurring at very short time-scales, phenomenal aspects of experience, psychological structures that underpin our conscious phenomenology and intersubjective processes that constitute our understanding of other people. This project will divide into two sub-projects: (a) the general assessment of the Folk-Mentalist Assumption and working towards an alternative conception, if needed; (b) the investigation of the phenomena that are troublesome for the Folk-Mentalist Assumption (especially time consciousness and intersubjectivity).

MOBILITAS Postdoctoral Research Grant: "Logical pluralism: Agreement, disagreement, and the possibility of communication"

Duration: 01.07.2012 - 30.06.2015

Budget: 83 292 eurot

Grant holder: dr Luis Estrada-Gonzalez

The research will be focused on the logical conditions of possibility for communication, not so much in the tradition of speech acts looking for the logical form of sentences but rather in line with Quine’s radical translation thought experiments and the debate on logical pluralism. A structured investigation will be based on the following questions: (Q1) Where does agreement and disagreement with others come from in the choice of one’s logic? (Q2) How can there be any agreement or disagreement when some (traditionally held as) core logical principles are called into question? (Q3) How can there be not only any agreement or disagreement, but communication at all if every logical principle can be called into question? (Q4) How can one disagree with a trivialist, a hypothetical agent who believes that everything is true? The applicant's general hypothesis is that for communication to be possible (a) some basic, minimal agreements are needed, but (b) they need not be shared by everyone and need not be taken as eternally fixed nor they need be “logical principles” since (c) communication has many other objectives besides agreement (ex. gr. producing disagreement about a certain topic). The research also touches on further “practical” consequences of logical pluralism regarding the possibility of communication in different areas. For example, how do different kinds of physicists interact if one of them uses a logic at the micro level and the other a different logic at the mesoscopic level? How is the transition between the two made?

7th framework program project: "Children as Change Agents for Science in Society"

Duration: 01.01.2011–31.12.2014

Budget: 130 968 EUR

Grant holder: prof. Margit Sutrop

Project webiste

In January 2011, the 7th framework programme project “Children as Change Agents for Science in Society” began. The project is coordinated by Tricia Jenkins, MBE from the University of Liverpool in the UK. The project seeks to identify how children can be change agents in the relationship between science and society, and from this starting point, to indicate how they can be catalysts in the long-term solutions to the great social challenges of their future. The focus will be on capable children who are currently least likely to pursue the study of science at the post secondary level.

The Centre for Ethics manages an ethics-centred work package, the main task of which is to evaluate and consider the ethical aspects of the project, to ensure and improve the overall quality of the project, and to develop guidelines which stress the ethical aspects of situations involving children.

ETF project: "Conceptions of the Soul and Immortality in the British Thought from (1640-1740)"

Duration: 01.01.2011 - 31.12.2014

Budget: 13 200 EUR

Grant holder: Roomet Jakapi

The project is concerned with the conceptions of human soul put forward by British thinkers in the period of 1640-1740. In particular, it proposes to study their philosophico-theological accounts of the soul in its post-mortal states. Modern scholarly literature on the Early Modern conceptions of the soul focuses mainly on the soul in its present, embodied state. In this way, the modern scholarship tends to ignore an important aspect of their views, for Early Modern philosophers were equally interested in soul’s immortality and afterlife. They produced numerous accounts of the separate/intermediate as well as final state of the soul. No systematic research has been done on these accounts to be found in the works of British thinkers. The project aims to expound, compare and analyze the views and arguments concerning the future states of souls in their textual and intellectual context. Thus the project is intended to broaden our current understanding of Early Modern Philosophy. Early Modern philosophers disagreed on whether any of the cognitive faculties of the soul could function independently of the body. According to the standard view, the soul exercised the senses, imagination and memory by means of bodily apparatus. The dependence of the higher faculties such as reason and intellect on the body was disputable. The British philosophers of the period can be broadly divided into two groups: (1) those who adopted (e.g. H. More, S. Clarke, G. Berkeley, S. Colliber) and (2) those who rejected (e.g. Th. Hobbes, W. Coward, A. Collins, J. Locke) the notion of incorporeal substance. The former advanced fairly detailed philosophico-theological accounts of the separate state. They explained what cognitive powers would be lost or retained after bodily death, regained at the resurrection, and what powers would enable the disembodied soul to perceive spiritual and corporeal objects. The latter group of thinkers tended towards Christian mortalism. The project aims to show in detail how specific philosophical conceptions of the soul in combination with specific religious beliefs gave rise to different accounts of the cognitive powers or faculties of the post mortem soul. According to one of the main working hypotheses of the project, these accounts turned on what cognitive faculties were considered to be independent of the body. The latter faculties would be ascribed to the disembodied soul as well.

ETF grant no. 7946 Constructive realism in the conception of models-based scientific theory

Duration: 1.01.2009 - 31.12.2012

Grant holder: professor Rein Vihalemm

Budget: 201 600 EEK (for year 2009)

The main objective of the project is to achieve certain clarity as to the understanding of the content and importance of scientific theory as one of the main categories of the philosophy of science in the new situation of today’s philosophy of science which can be characterized by leaving all the traditional frameworks of logical and semantic analysis of physical theories behind and concentrating on the actual practice of different scientific fields.

The current project proceeds from the viewpoint that the justified expansion of the context of philosophy of science should not make the notion of science vague nor the role of philosophy of science unclear nor place scientific theory as the category of philosophy of science and the necessity of seeing science as a specific type of cognition in doubt. The research concentrates upon the conception of models-based scientific theory as a constructive approach (which is the continuation of the research of constructivism of the previous project) from the viewpoint of “actual working of science”, but offers also a developed form of this approach as constructive or practical realism. The project proceeds from the comprehension that although there is no reason to identify science in general with physics and scientific theory with physical theory, it would similarly be unreasonable to think that there is nothing in physics or physical theory (the scientificity of which cannot be denied by anyone) that is characteristic of a type of cognition called science and which enables to differentiate it from other types of cognition. In order to describe science as a specific type of cognition and scientific theory as a category of philosophy of science, both physics and other sciences must be analyzed from the aspect of invariant practical activity characteristic of all of them.

The novelty of the approach of the current project also lies in the application of a theoretical model, which has been developed earlier and determines phi-science which is an idealized physics-like science. It is a model and is therefore not identical with real science, but is an abstract non-linguistic object that is similar to the real object only in certain respects and to certain degrees, but which can be used as the means of researching the real object. Empirical case studies will also be involved, as are dialogues with scientists, historians of science and sociologists of science.

ETF project: "Understanding Normative Cognition: Autonomy, Unity and Generality"

Duration: 01.09.2010 - 31.08.2013

Budget: 92 671 EUR

Grant holder: Francesco Orsi

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project Rising pan-European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics (RISE)

Duration: 2009-2011

Budget:48 800 EUR.

Finance program: Seventh Framework Programme

Coordinator: Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (Italy).

Estonian participant: University of Tartu Centre for Ethics.

Partners:

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Biometric Research Centre (China);
Center for Policy on emerging technologies (USA),
Cesagen (UK),
Global Security Intelligence (USA),
European Biometric Forum (Ireland),
Nasscom-DSCI (India),
Natrional Cash Register Company (UK),

Rising pan-European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics (RISE) is a 25 month CSA, which aims to promote pan-European and International Awareness on Ethical Aspects of Biometrics and Security Technologies. In particular the project aims to, to deepen, enlarge, and ensure continuity to transnational (European) and international dialogue already instigated by the international conferences on ethics and biometrics organized by the EC DG Research and the US DHS Privacy Office respectively in Brussels and Washington DC in 2005 and 2006.

RISE's framing point is the new political landscape created by the Treaty of Lisbon of the European Union. The EU is now on the verge of multifaceted reform of its decision-making rules for security, which may have deep ethical and political implications. RISE will address these issues.The project is based on three main ideas: dialogue must be global, policy must be ethically informed and conversation must me ongoing.

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project Transdisciplinary approach to the Emerging CHallenges of NOvel technologies: Lifeworld and Imaginaries in Foresight and Ethics (TECHNOLIFE)

Duration: January 2009 - September 2011

Finance program: Seventh Framework Programme

Coordinator: University of Bergen.

Estonian participant: prof. Margit Sutrop (University of Tartu Centre for Ethics)

Partners:

Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona;
Cardiff University;
Universite de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines;
University of Copenhagen;
Lancaster University;
European Commission - Joint Research Centre.

The TECHNOLIFE project will approach the SiS 5.1.1.2 call by developing new ethical frameworks to address ethical concerns of Europeans in relation to three technological fields: ICTs, Geographical Imaging Systems and converging technologies to enhance the human body. It will supply valuable insights on how issues of ethical concern to groups, publics and citizens can be considered in EC policy in the three technological fields.

We propose a novel approach to the research on ethical frameworks, using the concept of imagined communities as a way of getting to ethical concerns in ways that do not unduly suppress their complexity, heterogeneity and communicatively challenging character. The emphasis on information, communication and perception enhancing technologies is appropriate since these are strong promoters in the ongoing restructuring of social groups and imaginaries that go to make up the future Europe.

They also transform the very meaning of human sociability, identity, communication and community in ways that pose great challenges to ethical theory and ethics for policy. Dominant imaginaries, ethical concerns and broad technological developments will be described deploying insights from a number of disciplines. These will be fed into an online database where they will be used for deliberation by a number of invited participants from concerned groups and publics. The results of the process will be analysed and interpreted to identify central imaginaries and their related arguments and viewpoints among the relevant groups.

The qualitative data will then be used to:

develop new ethical frameworks fitted to the social and analytic level of imagined communities;
provide guidelines for the EC on policy in the three technological fields;
establish a web portal that can be used for further deliberation on the three fields, and
supply documentation on the overall process to be used for the development of ethical frameworks in other technological fields.

ETF 2008 project JD123 Logical pluralism, pragmatics, and the epistemic principle of non-contradiction

Duration: 01.09.2008 - 31.08.2011

Grant holder: dr. Jean-Louis Hudry

This project is part of the Targeted Financing theme Critical analysis of relativism and pluralism regarding truth and knowledge, norms and values

The tenability of epistemic pluralism is assumed to depend on whether it can be spelled out as a coherent position that does not collapse into a relativism about truth. One notorious problem is, whether epistemic pluralism can interpret so-called “logical principles” in a way that is coherent with logical epistemic pluralism. E.g. the Principle of Non Contradiction (PNC) is usually considered to be a basic semantic principle of logic.

If we consider PNC as a truth of (classical) logic, and its negation as a truth of paraconsistent logic, we will, as logical pluralists either be forced to say that PNC and its negation are both true, or forced to be relativists about logical truths. One option to circumvent this problem, which will be investigated in more detail in the proposed project, consists in a reinterpretation of logical principles. Logics can be approached from a pragmatic angle, considering the way speakers use a given language through their utterances and beliefs.

Aristotelian logic provides us with the best illustration, which goes against its traditional interpretation in mathematical logic. Indeed, Aristotle’s logic pertains to a spoken language, whose sentences exist only embedded in particular utterance contexts. Therefore, the syntax and semantics of sentences cannot be dissociated from the pragmatics of their utterances; and it is the conventional use of a language that determines its logic.

The aim of the project is to spell out this new interpretation of Aristotelian logic and to prove its fruitfulness in application to logical pluralism.

Project New ethical frameworks for genome banks and e-health databases in co-opration with European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway

Duration: 01.04.2008. - 31.12.2010.

Budget: 718 200 EEK

Financing program: EEA financing

Project leader: prof. Margit Sutrop

Generally, medical ethics, and more recently bioethics, have largely in the West been guided by values of liberal individualism thus stressing every person's voluntary decision-making capacity as the supreme value in research and medical practice. Both traditional medical ethics and bioethics promised to pay the highest respect to the autonomy, privacy and equality of each person. However, the developments in genetics and the initiatives to set up population based genetic databases during the last decades of the 20th century increasingly questioned the applicability or rather the sufficiency of the individual-centred value discourse as the sole ethical framework of guidance in these areas.

Challenges raised by genetics and both its actual and potential applications pointed towards the relevance of other values, of more communal and collective type, in guiding our moral reasoning in topics as diverse as cloning, genetic testing and pharmacogenetics. The same kind of movement took place in public health. The initiatives for improvign public health care, such as e-health projects (the aim of which is to make all medical records available in internet (such as Estonia's e-health project which will be launched in 2008) also showed the limits of the liberal individual-centred ethical frameworks and made clear that public interest may be a strong argument for moving towards more communal ethical decision-making.

In this project we will study this change in ethical frameworks. We will elaborate on the following questions: Is there a clear need for new ethical frameworks for genetic and health sector databases? What kind of ethics will be most suitable to meet the needs of science and new challenges of public health care? Do new advances in science and technology force medical ethics towards a more communitarian ethics or towards an ethics of care, going beyond that of individual autonomy and private interest. Will this new ethics be more suitable to encourage civic participation for the public welfare?

And will it be still able to respect the individual liberty and autonomy and protect the individuals against breaches of confidentiality and discrimination. With the help of the current grant we would like to promote cooperation between the researchers of the Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu, Centre for Ethics at the University of Iceland and Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway.

Nordic Spaces grant The Nordic Model of Democracy: Diffusion, Competition, Europeanisation

Duration: 2008 - 2011

Budget: 425 000 EUR

Financing program: Nordic Spaces

Project leader: Nicholas Aylott

Estonian participant: dr. Kadri Simm (Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu)

Our proposed project concerns the Nordic "model" of democracy - defined in terms of both institutional patterns and the values with which political discourse is laden - and its relation to the Baltic states. Our interest is in whether elements of the model have diffused into political institutions and processes in these recently democratised Baltic neighbours; or, alternatively, whether the process of Europeanisation has offered competition to the Nordic template; or, indeed, whether either source of change has had much impact. Specifically, we focus on (1) constitutional structures, (2) mechanisms of parliamentary control and scrutiny, (3) political parties and (4) the rhetorical parameters of political debate. Should such diffusion have occurred, the prospect of redefining the Nordic model of democracy to include the Baltic states - and perhaps, given the importance of democracy in Nordic identity, even of redefining the traditional boundaries of the region - would be raised.

ETF 2007 project ETF7163 Bridging Explanatory Gaps: How Science can Alter Our View of the World

Duration: 01.01.2007 - 31.12.2010

Grant holder: prof. Daniel Cohnitz

Budget: 223 488 EEK (for year 2009)

Project Website

The general topic of this research project is the phenomenon of explanatory gaps between folk theoretic accounts of a certain domain and scientific accounts of that same domain. The phenomena under study are such that prima facie the folk theoretic level of description and explanation is not considered defective. In other words: the folk theories seem to be about real and robust phenomena and seem to explain these phenomena truly.

An explanatory gap, in our sense, is open if a scientific theory which is well confirmed and arguably about the same domain as the folk theory does not obviously entail the latter. In these cases it is at least not straightforward how the scientific theory can explain the phenomena the folk theory is about. Such explanatory gaps have been proposed in a variety of areas, for example in the study of phenomenal consciousness, the free will debate, and the study of knowledge.

Our interest in explanatory gap phenomena covers three aspects:

(i.) what is the status of the “folk theory”?,

(ii.) what is the relation between the folk theory and the scientific theory?,

(iii.) can explanatory gaps be closed?

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project ETHICSWEB: Interconnected European Information and documentation system for ethics and science: European Ethics Documentation Centre

Duration: 01.06.2008-28.02.2011

Budget: 35 740.- EUR

Finance program: Seventh Framework Programme

Coordinator: German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences

Estonian participant: Centre for Ethics (CEUT), Estonia, University of Tartu

Project website: www.ethicsweb.org

Partners:

Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Italy;
Regional Bioethics Information Centre (RBIC), Lithuania, University of Vilnius;
Abteilung Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin und Informations- und Dokumentationsstelle Ethik in der Medizin (IDEM) (UMG-GOE), Germany, University Medical Centre Göttingen, University of Göttingen;
Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBMI), Slovenia, University of Ljubljana;
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Scientifique (INSERM), France;
Centre for Applied Ethics (CAE), Romania, University of Bucharest;
Epson Foundation Institute of Technoethics (FunEPSON), Spain;
Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law and Society (CCELS), United Kingdom, University of Wales;
Interdepartmental Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW), Germany, University of Tübingen;
Ethics Institute (UU-EI), The Netherlands, University of Utrecht;
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France;
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Italy;
Karolinska Institutet (KIB), Sweden, University of Stockholm;
Centre for Ethics and Law (CEL), Denmark;
Department of Health Care Studies (CAPHRI), The Netherlands, University of Maastricht

It is the overall aim of ETHICSWEB to stimulate an enhanced democratic debate on ethical issues of science and to promote a more engaged and informed public. Therefore, existing information and documentation systems will be connected to allow and ensure an easy access to comprehensive information on science and ethics. At the same time sophisticated tools, both technical and semantic, will be applied or - if necessary developed - to make the huge amount of information available for all parties involved. ETHICSWEB will be a common, decentralized European access point for information that is made available in different European member states, by various regional providers and centres as well as by international organizations.

ETHICSWEB strives for the documentation of different sources which include information on ethics and science like

literature;
laws, regulations and guidelines;
training materials and training programmes;
academic exchange programmes;
centres, projects and experts;
events and news (such as conferences, calls for papers and new initiatives)

The ethical aspects of genetic databases and new technologies: individual versus common values and goods

Duration: 1.01.2005 - 31.12.2008

Budget: 320 000.- EEK (for year 2008)

Funder: Estonian Science Foundation

Grant holder: prof Margit Sutrop

The objective of the project is to explore the philosophical-ethical questions that have emerged alongside the speedy developments in science and the new technologies. The focus is foremost on the ethical aspects of genetic databases and the related, the so-called new technologies (pharmacogenetics, gene technology etc). The project is divided into three research fields:

Analysis of risks related to development of science and new technologies and the elucidation and justification of the values that are seen as being threatened by these risks. Methodologically the history of ideas and the systematic approaches are applied.
Analysis of values prevalent in bioethics. The aim is to disclose the practices of justification for values like privacy, autonomy, justice and solidarity. In relation to genetic databases, the dilemmas arising from the conflict between liberal individualism and communitarianism that stresses the common good (solidarity versus privacy, contradictory principles of justice, altruistic versus egoistic participation motivation) will be examined.
Sociological research „Estonian attitudes towards science and technological developments - perceived risks and values“ and the philosophical analysis of the results. Research will focus on questions like which values prevail in relation to technological development? What do the Estonians mean under privacy, do people feel threatened as the amount of genetic information is growing? How are privacy and solidarity, individual and common interests balanced? The purpose of the sociological study is to provide supporting data for the theoretical analysis of the other fields of the research project.

Preparations for the National values developemt program

Contracted by the Ministry of Education and Research until 31.12.2008, budget: 2 300 000.- EEK

The preparation of the national program "Value development in Estonian Society 2009-2013" will be carried out via various activities (a set of Night University radio shows, a survey of value development related research, development of Ethics web portal, organizing different events and publishing value development related materials).

Expected results:

A set of Night University radio shows in cooperation with Eesti Raadio has been prepared;
New materials have been added to Ethics web portal;
The survey of value development related research and materials has been completed;
Three value development related conferences and one two-day seminar have been organized;
Value development related materials have been published;
Two value development related surveys have been completed;
Expert commission has drafted the text for the national program "Value development in Estonian Society 2009-2013".

Set-up of the National Centre for Information, Documentation and Communication of Ethics

Duration: 2005-2008

To raise interest and awareness of ethical issues and to promote ethical behavior, the Centre for Ethics is currently establishing the national information centre on ethics-related documentation, information and communication.

The main objective of the national centre is to gather together and offer information on practical ethics (case studies, study materials, codes of conduct, regulations, ethics committees, bibliographies, experts, etc.) to all interested persons and organizations. Information is gathered and presented about normative ethics, public ethics, medical ethics, ethics of sexuality, business ethics, law ethics, ethics in science, environmental ethics, cyberethics, media ethics, ethics and religions, ethics in advertising and ethics of pedagogy.

Main target groups include people who are dealing with these subject matters daily: doctors, patients, ethics committee members, scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, lawyers, politicians, civil servants, journalists, business persons, non-governmental organizations, pupils, teachers, etc.

Constructivism in philosophy of science

Duration of project 01.01.2004 - 31.12.2007

Principal investigator Endla Lõhkivi

Senior personnel Rein Vihalemm, Urmas Ivask, Katrin Velbaum, Ave Mets, Edit Talpsepp, Rainer Kivi

The main goal of this research project is to gain a better understanding of the role and place of constructivist approaches in contemporary philosophy of science. By close examination of various constructivist accounts, we study the advantages and limitations of constructivism, and try to answer to the question whether constructivism provides us with a more adequate conception of science than more traditional approaches. In our own approach, theoretical analysis is combined with empirical case studies in the history of science and in contemporary sciences (the use of models in chemistry; the structure of physical theories; the development of Newton's ideas as influenced by his religious views; chemistry as a partially ¿-science and partially non- ¿-science).

As result of the project, we attempt to propose answers to the following questions:

Does constructivism explain the process of knowledge production in physics?
What kind of problems are related to the attempts of incorporating constructivism in the empiricist and realist frameworks?
Does the social causal explanation applied in social constructivism really explain scientific knowledge or does it just describe the context of the emergence of particular scientific ideas?
Is criticism against social constructivism presented by social epistemology fully justified?
What are the strengths and shortcomings of the activity theory approach in theory of science?
What kind of problems in social constructivism are related to the assumed meaning finitism and how to solve them?
Why is it important to investigate the boundary problems of science and philosophy in the framework of philosophy of science, and is constructivism suitable for this purpose?

Methodologically, the project makes use of critical analysis of philosophical arguments, but also endorses interdisciplinarity as a new idea in philosophy - in addition to the analysis of the arguments, sociological, ethnographic, anthropological and other empirical methods of collecting and interpreting data will be applied if necessary.

ERMOS project Knowledge and Disagreement

Duartion: 01.10.2012 - 31.03.2013

Budget: 92 900 EUR

Grant holder: dr Giovanni Mion

My research concerns the nature of disagreement in the context of communication. In particular, it aims to explain the nature of disagreements concerning what we know; for clearly, people disagree about what they know. Accordingly, a theory of linguistic communication must be able to account for the possibility of the so called “epistemic disagreement”. More precisely, my major goal is to explain how a contextualist theory of knowledge can explain the existence of disagreement among speakers. My working hypothesis is that genuine epistemic disagreement is possible only under the assumption that the meaning of the word “knowledge” is inter-subjective. In particular, I contend that we should assume that context sensitive expressions have the semantic value that they do thanks to environmental factors, such as the best way to achieve a shared conversational goal. Accordingly, since speakers might be mistaken about the best way to achieve their conversational goals, we can make a distinction between the context that objectively governs a conversation and what each speaker takes to be the context that governs his or her conversation. As a consequence, since a speaker’s take on the context that truly governs his or her conversation might be more or less deficient, we can explain why people (including philosophers debating about skepticism and relativism) can use the word “knowledge” to contradict each other. With the help of objective contexts, I can explain why knowledge is context relative without slipping into relativism. In my view, knowledge depends upon our conversational goals; and different people have different conversational goals, but the best way to achieve them is objectively determined by how the world really is.

Improvment of theoretical philosophy research and education in the Department of Philosophy by recruiting a forgein professor

Project duration: 2005 Oct - 2008 Oct

Participants: prof. Daniel Cohnitz, Bruno Mölder, Jaan Kangilaski, Gea Kõverjalg, Endla Lõhkivi ja Triin Paaver.

ETF project CCCOM: "Communication in Context: Shared Understanding in a Complex World / Verbal Disputes and Reference"

Duration: 01.04.2011 - 31.03.2013

Budget: 94 128 EUR

Grant holder: prof. Daniel Cohnitz

Project website

This project investigates the preconditions of successful communication in two respects, one at the level of discourses, the other at the level of words. At the level of discourses we will investigate under which preconditions an agreement or disagreement between the participating parties in a discourse is "genuine" and under which conditions it is "merely verbal". We thereby also hope to clarify the conditions under which participants in a discourse talk "past each other". Although we are interested in this topic from an applied, methodological perspective (since one of our interests is to investigate under which conditions specific discourses, for example, philosophical disputes about logic or ontology, are "merely verbal"), this project nevertheless will also contribute to the foundational theoretical work of the EUROCORES project "Coomunication in Context: Shared Understanding in a Complex World", concerning the preconditions for successful communication in general. At the level of words, we will investigate in which way the interpretation of singular terms (such as, for example, proper names) in utterances of others is influenced by information on the background knowledge of these speakers about the referent of the singular term, and to what extent charity consideration lead to a reinterpretation of what is taken to be the "semantic" referent of the singular term in question. While the first set of questions will mainly involve theoretical work and will be investigated in close cooperation with the project-group at Stockholm ("Communication in Context") and Lisbon ("Contextualism, Relativism and Practical Conflicts and Disagreements"), the second set will mainly be investigated empirically and in close cooperation with the group in Trondheim/Turku ("Words in Worlds") and Osnabrück ("The Comprehension of Referential Expressions and its Impact on Communication").

Understanding Puzzles in the Gendered European Map - Brain Drain in Physics through the Cultural Looking Glass

Duration of the project 2005 sept - 2008 sept.

Participants Endla Lõhkivi, Katrin Velbaum, Mari-Liis Tina

Project's website www.upgem.dk

Over the next decades, the scientific workforce of the new enlarged European Union is faced with severe problems. The general decrease in populations will affect all sectors of higher education and research. But, certain areas of research - particularly natural sciences - will encounter increasing problems with recruitment, especially of female students.

Therefore it is a matter of utmost concern that few female scientists are attracted to research careers in natural sciences; that those who are often leave the research system prematurely; and that well-qualified female scientists seldom or never reach top-level positions or achieve distinguished careers in research and development, to the same extent as their male counterparts. This is a fact that has been well established through figures from a number of studies both at European and national level, notably the Helsinki Report, the ETAN-report, the SHE-figures and the ENWISE survey.

Even though the overall picture is a dismal one, an interesting configuration of cultural diversity emerges when we observe the gendered European map closely. Figures show that it is comparatively easier to attract female students to the field of physics in Eastern and Southern European countries than in the North, and that career paths seem to follow different national patterns.

Project results will be published in two publications Draw the Line! and Break the Pattern.

Research based recommendations for more gender-sensitive research environments will also be presented at this homepage and at the UPGEM conference in May 2008 in Copenhagen. The action-oriented recommendations address two levels; 1) the level of ideology and 2) the level of practice.

Ethics depository: collecting and distributing science- and bioethics information in Estonia and internationally

The Evaluation of social impacts of the new Family Law Act.

Duration: 2007-2008

One of the objectives of the new Family Law Act is social progress. This is natural and expected. At the same time every update in legislation will bring up changes in attitudes, values and human behavior and therefore will direct social developments. What might be the developments in human behavior and in Estonian society in general after the adoption of the new Family Law Act - whether those changes accord with the general will of the society and with the objectives of the state is unclear. What kind of ethical issues might the new law bring up, what kind of individual and collective value judgements does it influence and how compatible will the new law be with more general ethical positions?

We acknowledge that the issue falls partly in the competence of the social scientists but we think that the ethical impacts of the new law should also be evaluated. We plan to base our evaluation on the existing documents (the current law, the new law draft, etc.), analyze existing data on the issue and also gather new data.

Objectives:

Analyze the impact from the gender aspect taking into account the different socio-economic status men and women have, and look into the possible changes in power relations.
Analyze the impact on children - how does the new law take into account the interest of the children considering the laws already in effect.
Analyze the impact on the marriage's fiscal arrangements. We will take a look at past court cases involving property disputes and evaluate what kind of new cases might arise.
Analyze the ethical implications. How is social justice guaranteed with the new law: will men and women be treated equally, will the rights of children be protected. What kind of ethical issues might arise with the new law and how will it influence the ethical principles of the Estonian society in general?

We will include experts from the Estonian Union for Child Welfare, Estonian Union of Parents, Gender Equality Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonian Women`s Associations Roundtable.

The governmental purveyance of Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs “An expert opinion about the handling of personal data connected to the digital case history in the context of bioethics and medical ethics”

Duration: 2006-2007

The ethics workgroup includes: prof. Margit Sutrop (coordinator), prof. Arvo Tikk, prof. Raul-Allan Kiivet, prof. Raul Talvik, prof. Tiina Talvik, prof. Mati Rahu, prof. Jaan Ginter, dr. Andres Soosaar, Mart Einasto and Merje Tikk.

Target-funded project Normativity: a critical study of its philosophical foundations, historical sources, and forms of manifestation

Grant holder: prof. Margit Sutrop

Duration of the project 2003-2007

The main task of the project is to provide historical origin and ways of manifestation of normativity in thinking, science and society for a complex study of the philosophical foundations. The critical verification and analysis of a widely shared view that such concepts as knowledge, truth, meaning, virtue, justice, good and right have a normative dimension, is planned. A still open question, to be addressed by the project, is: where does this normativity arise from? The starting point of the research is a philosophical-anthropological hypothesis that the sources of normative thinking and acting are in human nature. We engage in normative thinking because we are reflective creatures who have the capacity to reflect on our beliefs and desires, and ask, what one should do and how one should live. The project has three aims: firstly, it aims to find out the historical sources of normativity, secondly, to understand the nature of normative thinking and thirdly, to analyse its different forms of manifestation (science, morality, religion, politics, law, and art) both in history and in modern times.

The current project deals with normativity in three different fields:

normativity of historical and contemporary thinking (research group at the Chair for History of Philosophy led by prof. Ülo Matjus);
normativity in science and scientific knowledge (research group at the Chair for the Philosophy of Science led by prof. Rein Vihalemm);
normativity in morality, politics, religion, law, and art (research group at the Chair for Practical Philosophy led by prof. Margit Sutrop).

The environmental awareness project Basic texts in environmental ethics. Supported by Environmental Investment Centre

ETF project Rudolf Carnap's logical and ontological pluralism - a case study

Duration: 05.04.2010 - 04.04.2013

Budget: 92 671 EUR

Grant holder: Mikko Leinonen

The proposed project studies the pluralistic conceptions of Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) as a case study for logical and ontological pluralisms. Firstly, there is an ongoing Quine-Carnap controversy and many reflections and commentaries of it from past decades. The intended project aims to research prominent aspects of Quine’s and Carnap’s different philosophical backgrounds and clarify their different conceptions of empiricism and further elucidate Carnap’s (logical) empiricism. Secondly, the intended project aims to research and present ways of how a “moderate” framework-as-language interpretation about Carnap’s Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology can be further enforced and elucidated. Thirdly, regarding Carnap’s Logische Syntax der Sprache and its “Principle of Tolerance”, the intended project aims to present ways how certain remarkable interpretations about Carnap’s logical pluralism can be criticized by presenting different readings and constructing different possibilities of interpretations.

Handbook of Codes of Conduct, supported by Open Estonia Foundation

To draw attention to the ethical behavior and responsibilities within the Estonian society, the Centre for Ethics is currently elaborating and composing the handbook on the codes of conduct. “A to Z of the Codes of Conduct” is aimed towards non-governmental organizations, and public and private sector organizations in order to help them compose their own codes of conduct.

COST Action IS1001: "BIO-OBJECTS and THEIR BOUNDARIES: governing matters at the intersection of society, politics and science"

Duration: 2010-2013

Representative of University of Tartu: dr. Kadri Simm

Project website

Project competition for non-profit organizations More Women into Politics by Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and Open Estonia Foundation

Duration: 2006-2007

The aim of the project is to increase the number of women in politics by enlarging the public awareness. To accomplish the aim, we plan to publish a collection of articles and interviews, organize seminars, discussions and a media campaign.

As a result of the project, a collection of articles titled Estonian Female Ministers. Collection of Writings about Women at the Top of Politics was published. Also, discussions and media campaign on “The achievements and impediments of women in political reality” were organized.

National Institute of Health Fogarty grant „E-education in Scienceethics”

Grant holders: Union College, Albany (USA) and University of Vilnius

Estonian representative prof. Margti Sutrop, who conducted regular teaching within the project in 2005–2007.

Tallinn Univesity of Technology grant The epistemological foundations of ethics in the early modern and contemporary British philosophy

Duration: 2003 - 2007

Grant holder: dr. Roomet Jakapi

Target-funded project Critical analysis of relativism and pluralism regarding truth and knowledge, norms and values

Duration: 1.01.2008-31.12.2013

Budget: 1 494 000.- EEK (for the year 2009).

Project leader: prof. Margit Sutrop

The concept of relativism includes an array of positions unified by the view that certain important aspects of thought, experience, judgment and reality are relative. Pluralism signifies a perspective that certain things (concepts, values, norms, discourses, views) exist in plurality. The project will critically analyze various forms of relativism and pluralism (moral, political, epistemic, conceptual) and their implications. The objective is to establish that denying monism—a view that there exists only one acceptable conceptual scheme or value system—does not necessarily lead us to relativism. A lot of inconsistency and incoherence exists within relativism. A relativist position might lead to a denial of objectivity, knowledge, communication and the possibility of progress in thinking, language, science, morality, politics etc. Critical analysis of relativism will indicate whether pluralism could suffice as an alternative - while opposing monism it can be combined with objectivism.

NorFa (Nordic Academy for Advance Studies) supported networking project The Ethics of Genetic and Medical Information

Duration: 2002–2004

Continuation: 2005–2006

The project is carried out in cooperation with Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

Population-based medical and genetic databases are present in various stages of construction in Iceland, Sweden, Estonia and the U.K., and in recent years Finland has been the site of some controversial population-based genetic research. The network will study ethical and legal problems concerning genetic and medical information with a specific focus on issues raised by population-based databases containing medical and genetic data. The network will be concerned with issues raised by the databases themselves, as well as research connected to such databases and potential applications.

The network will pull together resources and expertise of ethicists and law researchers in Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the U.K. to deal with the many ethical and legal problems arising in this context. The research groups consist primarily of research students and young researchers, supported by established researchers within the field.

In the first year, the emphasis will be put on bringing researchers together at two workshops and a research training seminar. In the subsequent years, there will be an increasing emphasis on exchange of students and faculty, in particular research students’ visits, in addition to one research training seminar in the second year and a conference in the third year.

European Union 5th Framework programme project Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Human Genetic Databases. A European Comparison (ELSAGEN)

Project website

ELSAGEN is an interdisciplinary project which is carried out in cooperation with scientists and researchers from Iceland, United Kingdom, Sweden and Estonia. Estonian coordinator of the project is Prof. Margit Sutrop. The following researchers are participating in the project: Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler, Prof. Toivo Maimets, Prof. Jaan Sootak, Prof. Rainer Kattel, Tiiu Hallap, Kadri Simm, Ants Nõmper, Kirsti Jõesalu, Külliki Korts, Piia Tammpuu, Ragne Kõuts, Riivo Anton. The three-year long project began in January 2002.

The ELSAGEN project has two general objectives:

Ethical, legal and social studies of genetic databases: to anticipate and address questions raised by recent developments in genetics research by providing knowledge of ethical, legal and social aspects of population-based human genetic databases.
Consultation on public views of privacy: to consult citizens by providing knowledge of public views of privacy and related moral values in the context of human genetic databases.

To meet the first objective, we have planned a number of studies that fall into four categories: Ethical, legal, social and what could be called “fundamental” issues.

The second objective is to provide knowledge about public views of privacy in the context of human genetic databases, people’s trust of public and commercial organisations with regard to collection and storage of personal data, and to what extent these views and attitudes vary between the four countries. A combined quantitative and qualitative sociological study will be conducted in the four countries and the results will be analysed by bioethicists.

Some results of the project

In April 22, 2003 the research team of the Centre for Ethics presented the Elsagen project and the first results in the National Library in Tallinn. The presentation of Riivo Anton

is available in English The Economic Benefits of the Estonian Genome project: Myth or Reality?.

Estonian Science Foundation grant no. 4618 "Human Nature - Morality and Sociability"

Grant holder: prof. Margit Sutrop

Researchers: Valdar Parve, Eva Piirimäe, Pärtel Piirimäe, Roomet Jakapi, Marek Järvik, Külli Keerus, Mairit Saluveer, Helen Eenmaa, Kristi Lõuk

Total Budget: 351 000 EEK (appr. 22 500 EUR)

Duration: 2002-2004

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Past Projects

Applications and social-political import of practice-based philosophy of science

Estonian Science Foundation, Personal Research Grant " The Unity of Normative Discourse: Between Reasons and Responsibility"

Estonian Science Foundation, Personal Research Grant "Speech that silences speech: mechanisms and solutions"

Protecting the interests of single parents: reducing poverty in the weakest part of the society

Efficiency and justice in distributing kindergarten places mechanism design

ERMOS project: "Verbal and Ontological Disputes in Everyday Life"

COST Action TD0904 TIMELY: "Time in Mental Activity: theoretical, behavioral, bioimaging and clinical perspectives"

ETF grant: "Linguistic Reality and its Psychological Basis"

ETF project: "Mind without mental states?"

MOBILITAS Postdoctoral Research Grant: "Logical pluralism: Agreement, disagreement, and the possibility of communication"

7th framework program project: "Children as Change Agents for Science in Society"

ETF project: "Conceptions of the Soul and Immortality in the British Thought from (1640-1740)"

ETF grant no. 7946 Constructive realism in the conception of models-based scientific theory

ETF project: "Understanding Normative Cognition: Autonomy, Unity and Generality"

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project Rising pan-European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics (RISE)

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project Transdisciplinary approach to the Emerging CHallenges of NOvel technologies: Lifeworld and Imaginaries in Foresight and Ethics (TECHNOLIFE)

ETF 2008 project JD123 Logical pluralism, pragmatics, and the epistemic principle of non-contradiction

Project New ethical frameworks for genome banks and e-health databases in co-opration with European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway

Nordic Spaces grant The Nordic Model of Democracy: Diffusion, Competition, Europeanisation

ETF 2007 project ETF7163 Bridging Explanatory Gaps: How Science can Alter Our View of the World

European Comission's Seventh Framework Programme's project ETHICSWEB: Interconnected European Information and documentation system for ethics and science: European Ethics Documentation Centre

The ethical aspects of genetic databases and new technologies: individual versus common values and goods

Preparations for the National values developemt program

Set-up of the National Centre for Information, Documentation and Communication of Ethics

Constructivism in philosophy of science

ERMOS project Knowledge and Disagreement

Improvment of theoretical philosophy research and education in the Department of Philosophy by recruiting a forgein professor

ETF project CCCOM: "Communication in Context: Shared Understanding in a Complex World / Verbal Disputes and Reference"

Understanding Puzzles in the Gendered European Map - Brain Drain in Physics through the Cultural Looking Glass

Ethics depository: collecting and distributing science- and bioethics information in Estonia and internationally

The Evaluation of social impacts of the new Family Law Act.

The governmental purveyance of Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs “An expert opinion about the handling of personal data connected to the digital case history in the context of bioethics and medical ethics”

Target-funded project Normativity: a critical study of its philosophical foundations, historical sources, and forms of manifestation

The environmental awareness project Basic texts in environmental ethics. Supported by Environmental Investment Centre

ETF project Rudolf Carnap's logical and ontological pluralism - a case study

Handbook of Codes of Conduct, supported by Open Estonia Foundation

COST Action IS1001: "BIO-OBJECTS and THEIR BOUNDARIES: governing matters at the intersection of society, politics and science"

Project competition for non-profit organizations More Women into Politics by Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and Open Estonia Foundation

National Institute of Health Fogarty grant „E-education in Scienceethics”

Tallinn Univesity of Technology grant The epistemological foundations of ethics in the early modern and contemporary British philosophy

Target-funded project Critical analysis of relativism and pluralism regarding truth and knowledge, norms and values

NorFa (Nordic Academy for Advance Studies) supported networking project The Ethics of Genetic and Medical Information

European Union 5th Framework programme project Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Human Genetic Databases. A European Comparison (ELSAGEN)

Estonian Science Foundation grant no. 4618 "Human Nature - Morality and Sociability"