Edward Spence

Edward Spence, BA (Honors, First Class), PhD (University of Sydney), is a senior lecturer in moral philosophy and professional ethics in the School of Communication and Creative Industries, Charles Sturt University, Australia. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) in Canberra. He is also an Affiliate research member of the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology. Edward was one of two successful applicants worldwide selected and seconded from Charles Sturt University for the period 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2009 to work as a Research Fellow on an International Research Project led by Professor Philip Brey. The topic of the project was the Evaluation of the Cultural Quality of New Media and the Good Life in the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente in the Netherlands. His specific research sub-project was the Normative Evaluation of Digital Information and the Good Life. This project was funded by the National Research Council of the Netherlands (NWO).
He is the lead author of Advertising Ethics (with Brett Van Heekeren) and Corruption and Anti-Corruption: A Philosophical Approach (with Seumas Miller and Peter Roberts), both published in 2005 by Pearson/Prentice Hall, USA; He is the author of Ethics Within Reason: A Neo-Gewirthian Approach (2006) Lexington Books (a division of Rowman and Littlefield) Lanham: USA, and the leading author of Media, Markets and Morals (with Andrew Alexandra, Anne Dunn and Aaron Quinn) Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (2011). He is editor (with Philip Brey and Adam Briggle) of the book, The Good Life in a Technological Age (in press), Routledge. He is also the author of several refereed papers in international journals on professional ethics, including media ethics, new media ethics, the ethics of computer games, the ethics of technology, and information ethics and computer ethics.
He is the founder and producer of the Theatre of Philosophy, a project whose aim is the introduction of philosophy to the general public through drama and audience participation through discussion. Conceived by Edward in 1997, the Theatre of Philosophy project combines philosophical talks presented by academic philosophers with original plays performed by professional actors in public forums which can take the form of restaurants, pubs, theatres, vineyards, opera houses, or other type of venue accessible to the public. Several of Edward’s authored philosophy plays have been performed at Arts and Cultural Festivals throughout Australia, including the Australian Fringe Festival and Festival Hellenica in Adelaide and the Greek Festival in Sydney. In 2004, his philosophy play, The Philosophy of Love: Love in the Age of Terror, was performed at the Sydney Opera House and in 2005 his philosophy play, The Philosophy of Freedom: Ancient Wisdom for a New World, was performed at the Museum of Sydney. In 2011, his philosophy play, Wise After the Fact, a play on the distinction between information, knowledge and wisdom, was performed for the Greek Festival of Sydney.
Edward teaches in the School of Communication and Creative Industries at Charles Sturt University in subjects on applied philosophy and professional ethics, including media and new media ethics, journalism ethics, advertising ethics, public relation ethics, theatre-media ethics and information ethics, in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He has taught and supervised MA students in Philosophy and ICT (PSTS) in the course, Technology and the Good Life, at the University of Twente, Netherlands (2006-2009).