Philosophy & Ethics
- Ethical Questions Science Can’t Answer
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Yes, yes, we’ve covered this territory before. But you might have heard that Sam Harris has reopened the discussion by challenging his critics, luring them out of their hiding places with the offer of cold hard cash. ...
Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Nov 12 2013 - 10:22am
- Calculating God
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When I go to the gym I get easily bored, so I listen to either music or, more likely, audiobooks. Recently, I’ve spent exercise time with a couple of scifi entries by author Robert Sawyer. I started out with Flashforward, then moved to Calculating God. Bot ...
Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Nov 5 2013 - 7:30am
- The Problem With Suspiciously Formed Desires
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A recent talk by Adam Elga (Princeton University) at CUNY’s Graduate Center made me think a bit about what the author calls “suspiciously formed desires.” ...
Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Nov 19 2013 - 7:30am
- Objective Moral Truth? Thoughts On Carrier’s Take
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I’m getting a little tired of writing about the relationship between science and philosophy when it comes to ethics, as I’ve made my views abundantly clear on this blog and elsewhere. Nonetheless, more than one of my readers has exhorted me to take on Rich ...
Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Nov 26 2013 - 8:00am
- Unpublished Trial Data Violates An Ethical Obligation To Study Participants
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29% of large clinical trials remain unpublished five years after completion and, of those, 78% have no results publicly available, according to a paper published yesterday. This means that an estimated 250,000 people have been exposed to the risks of tria ...
Article - News Staff - Oct 29 2013 - 11:03pm
- Are The Ethics Of Informed Consent Different When It Comes To Minorities?
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Remarkable improvements in the quality of life, prevention and treatment of disease have been made possible through advancements in biomedical research, including clinical trials involving human subjects. ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2013 - 10:00am
- Debate: Mandatory Flu Vaccinations For Health Care Workers
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When the Supreme Court was debating the legal foundation of the Affordable Care Act in the United States, Justice Antonin Scalia challenged the Obama administration claim that the controversial individual mandate provision was Constitutionally legitimate, ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2013 - 1:58pm
- Liverpool Care Pathway: A Flawed Death Plan Or A Scapegoat?
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After a series of media stories about the Liverpool Care Pathway being systematic malnutrition, dehydration and premature death in patients across a wide age-range, it was subjected to review by a panel which delivered their findings on 15 July 2013 sayin ...
Article - News Staff - Dec 17 2013 - 8:30am
- A Deadly Proof Is Published But Is Your Mind Stable Enough To Read It?
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“Should I kill myself? May the artificial intelligence (AI), which humankind will depend on, ponder such questions, decide rationally, and drag us with it in a mercy killing?” ...
Article - Sascha Vongehr - Dec 21 2013 - 12:45pm
- The Pseudoscience Black Hole
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As I’ve mentioned on other occasions, my most recent effort in philosophy of science actually concerns what my collaborator Maarten Boudry and I call the philosophy of pseudoscience. During a recent discussion we had with some of the contributors to our bo ...
Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Dec 23 2013 - 5:52pm