ĢƵ

Jocelyn Maclure

Academic title(s): 

Professor & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Human Nature and Technology

Jocelyn Maclure
Contact Information
Address: 

855 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2T7

Email address: 
jocelyn.maclure [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

DPhil, University of Southampton

Research areas: 
Ethics
Political Philosophy
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Social Epistemology
Biography: 

After a B.A. at Laval University and an M.A. at the University of Victoria, Jocelyn Maclure earned a DPhil from the University of Southampton. Before joining the philosophy department at ĢƵ in 2021, he taught for 17 years in the Faculty of philosophy at Laval University. He held visiting appointments in several universities.

Jocelyn’s research is ethics, political philosophy, the philosophy of AI and social epistemology. His book Secularism and Freedom of Conscience (Harvard University Press, 2011), co-authored with Charles Taylor, appeared in more than 10 languages. His recent work on artificial intelligence and on end-of-life issues led him to explore different metaphysical questions ranging from the mind-body problem to the enigma of personal identity.

As a public philosopher, he served as an expert-analyst for the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on cultural and religious accommodations, co-chaired the group of experts on medical assistance in dying, advanced medical directives and neurodegenerative diseases, and participated in numerous public debates. He was the president the Quebec Government Ethics in Science and Technology Commission from 2017 to 2024. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2023.

Selected publications: 

Maclure, J., Morin-Martel, A. “”, Digital Society, 4, 18, 2025.

Hamrouni, N., Maclure, J. “Precedent Autonomy and the Patient’s Best Interest: A Reasonable Path for Advance Medical Assistance in Dying Requests”, in, Ben White (ed.), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.

Dimitrios Karmis and Jocelyn Maclure, , ĢƵ-Queen’s University Press, 2023.

Cossette-Lefebvre, H., Maclure, J. “”, AI Ethics (2022).

Maclure, J. “”, Minds and Machines, 2021.

Levy, J., Maclure, J. & Weinstock, D. (ed.), Montreal : ĢƵ-Queen’s University Press, 2020.

Maclure, J. “”, Dialogue. Canadian Philosophical Review, 59, 3, 2020, pp. 377-410.

Maclure, J. “,” Criminal Law & Philosophy, 2020.

Maclure, J. “Jenseits der Toleranz und Zurück”, in Toleranz in transkultureller Perspektive, S. Dhouib (ed,), Velbrück-Wissenschaft, Berlin, 2020.

Maclure, J. “”, AI and Society, 35, 2019.

Maclure, J. “Reasonable Naturalism and the Humanistic Resistance to Reductionism”, in Markus Gabriel, Neo-Existentialism. How to Conceive the Mind After Naturalism’s Failure, Polity Press, 2018.

Maclure, J. “”, ĢƵ Law Journal, Vol 63:1, 2018, pp. 133-154.

Maclure, J. Dumont, I. “”, Journal of Medical Ethics, 43, 2017; 241-244.

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