Digest Week 6 Hilary Term 2025

Wittgenstein Reading Group 

This is the second of two meetings that are being hosted by the Wittgenstein Reading Group. The first took place on 3 February.

Title: Remarks on the Foundations of Maths… pp 2-18; §§1-50.

Time: 4:45 pm-6.45pm.

Venue: St Hilda’s College. 

To enquire about joining the reading group, please contact Richard Gipps at richard.gipps@bfriars.ox.ac.uk

Helen Frowe: ‘Not Just About the Sex: Systematically Deceptive Relationships and the Law’

Venue: St Cross College Lecture Theatre

Time: 5:30-7pm

Abstract: The revelation that undercover police officers engaged in long-term intimate relationships has met with widespread outcry, triggering a public inquiry and substantial compensation payments from the Metropolitan Police. But whilst the involvement of state actors might make these cases especially egregious, such Systematically Deceptive Relationships, as I shall call them, are far from the exclusive domain of ‘spy cops’. Historically, bigamy laws helped to deter Systematically Deceptive Relationships , with the aim of protecting women from the reputational harm of extramarital sex. While our changing social norms regarding cohabitation and divorce have decreased the chances of ending up in a bigamous relationship, they have simultaneously increased the chances of ending up in a Systematically Deceptive Relationships.

This talk defends a pluralist account of the wrongness of Systematically Deceptive Relationships, looking beyond the wrong of nonconsensual sex that often preoccupies existing discussions. I argue that when the harms of Systematically Deceptive Relationships pass a threshold, there is a (defensible) reason to criminalise their infliction. I then consider whether such legislation can avoid overcriminalisation of deception in intimate relationships.   

For more details and link to registration, click here https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/st-cross-college-lecture-with-helen-frowe