The Oxford Philosophy, Law, and Politics (PLP) Colloquium is an interdisciplinary series that brings together scholars from philosophy, law, politics, and related fields to discuss works in progress by distinguished researchers.
In the 2026–27 academic year, the Colloquium will take a new direction. Reflecting the growing importance of artificial intelligence across all domains of inquiry, the series will focus on cutting-edge AI research of significance for philosophy, law, and politics. Our speakers will be drawn from Oxford and London institutions and will include leading researchers from psychology and neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, and engineering.
The series is cheekily entitled What Philosophers, Lawyers, and Political Theorists Should Know About AI Research. Its aim is to bring scholars working on the technical frontiers of AI into conversation with members of the PLP community. We invite you to come and learn about the AI research being conducted by our Oxford and London colleagues that bears directly on questions of philosophical, legal, and political importance.
Each session will consist of a 45–50 minute non-technical presentation by the invited speaker, followed by discussion and Q&A. No prior technical background or pre-reading is required.
The 2026–27 Colloquium is co-sponsored by the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI. The series is co-convened by Ruth Chang, David Enoch, and Edward Harcourt. We thank the Hewlett Foundation for funding that makes the Colloquium possible.
Joshua Cohen is a political philosopher. He has written on issues of democratic theory, freedom of expression, religious freedom, political equality, democracy and digital technology, good (and not so good) jobs, human rights, and global justice. His books include On Democracy (with Joel Rogers); Democracy and Associations (with Joel Rogers); Philosophy, Politics, Democracy; Rousseau: A Free Community of Equals; and The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other Essays. He is co-editor of the Norton Introduction to Philosophy. Cohen taught at MIT and Stanford, is currently a Senior Faculty Director at Apple University, and is Distinguished Senior Fellow in Law, Philosophy, and Political Science at University of California, Berkeley. Cohen held the Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professorship in 2002-3; was Tanner Lecturer at UC Berkeley in 2007; gave the Comte Lectures at LSE in 2012; and the Annual Lecture on Ethics and AI at Oxford in 2024. He is co-editor-in-chief of Boston Review.