The limits of civility

We’re told to be civil: to debate rather than coerce, to show respect even to the disrespectful. But civility has its limits, beyond which people are forced to fight for their rights and the rights of others. Civility can be a virtue; it can also be a weapon to silence the voices of the marginalised. Are we right to violate the norms of civility in order to protect people from harm or discrimination? Will doing so tip us over into an ‘uncivilised’ society and further increase polarisation? Join us for a lively evening featuring moral philosopher Karen Jones and critically engaged choreographer and performer Sarah Aiken, as they explore how justice and civility can be at odds, and why cultivating the virtue of civility is still worthwhile.

This event is presented in partnership with The Ethics Centre.

The Ethics Centre

The Ethics Centre is an independent not-for-profit organisation that, for over 35 years, has been working to bring ethics to the centre of personal and professional life. The Centre’s innovative programs are recognised for stimulating public awareness and understanding, bringing people together, and creating space for open, honest and often difficult conversations.

Karen Jones

Speaker

Dr Karen Jones is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Melbourne. Her research is in moral psychology, ethics, feminist philosophy and the philosophy of emotions and rationality. She has written extensively on trust, what it is and when it is justified. Her work has been published in journals such as Ethics, Philosophical Studies, and Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. In 2016-17 Karen was Rockefeller Fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values.

Sarah Aiken

Artist

Sarah Aiken is a Naarm-based choreographer and performer with an extensive body of work presented nationally and internationally. Her solo and collaborative projects investigate assemblage, authorship, scale and the self to consider performance as a site for empathy and exchange. Sarah’s choreographic work includes Greenroom Award-winning Make Your Life Count (Arts House, 2022), Spanning (Chunky Move/SoftCentre, 2024) and What Am I Supposed To Do? in collaboration with Rebecca Jensen (Arts Centre Melbourne, 2019). She has been an artist in residence at HIAP Helsinki, Dancenorth, and Centre for Projection Art, and a recipient of the Chloe Munro Independent Artist Fellowship and Creative Victoria’s Creators Fund. In 2025 she will premiere new work Body Corp at Northcote Town Hall.

Sarah can be found on Instagram at @Snaiken.

Dr Tim Dean

Host

Tim Dean is a public philosopher, speaker, writer and current philosopher in residence and Manos Chair in Ethics at The Ethics Centre. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of New South Wales on the evolution of morality and specialises in public philosophy, ethics and critical thinking. He is an honorary associate at the University of Sydney and the author of How We Became Human, published by Pan Macmillan. He is also an experienced science writer and editor and has worked for outlets such as The Conversation and edited magazines including Cosmos and Australian Life Scientist. He is the recipient of the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals’ Award for his work on philosophy in the public sphere.