Stephen Coleman: The moral dangers of non-lethal weapons

Pepper spray and tasers are in increasing use by both police and military, and more exotic non-lethal weapons such as heat rays are in the works. At TEDxCanberra, ethicist Stephen Coleman explores the unexpected consequences of their introduction and asks some challenging questions.

Stephen Coleman studies applied ethics, particularly the ethics of military and police force, and their application to human rights.

Why you should listen to him:

Dr. Stephen Cole­man is Senior Lec­turer in Ethics and Lead­er­ship and Vin­cent Fair­fax Foun­da­tion Fel­low in the School of Human­i­ties and Social Sci­ences, UNSW@ADFA.

Coleman works in a diverse range of areas in applied ethics, includ­ing mil­i­tary ethics, police ethics, med­ical ethics, and the prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions of human rights. He has pub­lished and pre­sented in var­i­ous forms in Aus­tralia, the United States, the United King­dom, New Zealand and Hong Kong. He recently spent an aca­d­e­mic year as the Res­i­dent Fel­low at the Stock­dale Cen­ter for Eth­i­cal Lead­er­ship at the United States Naval Acad­emy, where he was part of a large research project exam­in­ing the eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of var­i­ous new and devel­op­ing mil­i­tary tech­nolo­gies. This project helped to brief the Depart­ment of Defense, the US Con­gress and the White House on these issues.

He can also make bal­loon and origami ani­mals, jug­gle, breathe fire and ride a uni­cy­cle, though not all at the same time.

Related articles

• From TED: Stephen Coleman on The moral dangers of non-lethal weapons (mikekato.wordpress.com)
• Ethical Dangers of Non-lethal Weapons (saintleoinkblot.com)
• How to make philosophy matter (feministphilosophers.wordpress.com)
• Digital Ethics - Exploring how kids use Digital Media (edtechpower.blogspot.com)
• "The Philosophy Of Food" (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Exposed: The Military's Freakiest 'Non-Lethal' Weapon Ideas (wired.com)
• Police Taser use soars by 130% (mirror.co.uk)