Philosophy & Ethics

We Don't Know If God Exists, But We Should Keep Asking

There are many different conceptions of God, and endless questions. Credit: Waiting For The Word, CC BY-NC-SA By Graham Oppy, Monash University Disputes about the existence of God — like most disputes about religion, politics, and sex — almost always gene ...

Article - The Conversation - Oct 18 2014 - 8:00am

Most Published Medical Research Is False- But It Can Be Better

In 2005, John Ioannidis wrote a paper in PLOS Medicine showing that most published research findings are false.  ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 21 2014 - 3:48pm

When It Comes To Ebola, How Much Risk Is Too Much?

How much risk can health workers be asked to take on? Mike Segar/Reuters By Catherine Womack, Bridgewater State University Taking care of sick people has always involved personal risk. From plague to tuberculosis to smallpox to SARS, health-care workers h ...

Article - The Conversation - Oct 27 2014 - 8:37am

Will The Ethical Social Scientists Please Stand Up?

Old fashioned scandals meet new-fangled complexity. Andy Dean Photography By Mark Israel, University of Western Australia ...

Article - The Conversation - Nov 5 2014 - 3:01pm

It's On The Way: Is Your Religion Ready To Meet ET?

Proof of life beyond earth is coming. Stargazing image via Shutterstock By David A. Weintraub, Vanderbilt University ...

Article - The Conversation - Nov 9 2014 - 9:00am

Fabricating And Plagiarizing: When Researchers Lie

Research undertaken on beagles and the contraceptive pill in the 1970s was found to be fabricated- there never were any beagles. Flickr/ Understanding Animal Research, CC BY-SA By Mark Israel, University of Western Australia There are a few things you mig ...

Article - The Conversation - Aug 30 2015 - 11:02am

If A Program Can't Understand Truth- Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence Babies

This is a commonly used argument, indeed often taken for granted. We can simulate physics on a computer. So, the argument goes, what is to stop us eventually simulating your whole body including your brain? And if so, is it not just a matter of time, and ...

Article - Robert Walker - Jan 31 2019 - 1:35pm

Britain’s Forgotten World War I Civilian Internment Camps

Knockaloe Camp. Stefan Manz By Stefan Manz, Aston University The German-Jewish painter and writer Paul Cohen-Portheim had spent a peaceful summer in 1914 visiting friends in Devon and enjoying the beautiful south-west coast. But his idyllic holiday came t ...

Article - The Conversation - Nov 15 2014 - 9:30am

Hard Of Thinking: If You're Bad At Logic, Logically You Would Never Know

You might never know that you're hard of thinking. Robin Zebrowski/Flickr, CC BY-NC By Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol and Richard Pancost, University of Bristol It is an unfortunate paradox: if you’re bad at something, you probably also l ...

Article - The Conversation - Nov 16 2014 - 12:30pm

Doctors Without Visas: Should Medical Schools Accept Illegal Immigrants?

You can be a doctor without becoming an American citizen, people move here all of the time and go to medical school. They just do it legally. The US president has used an executive order to grant amnesty to an unknown number of illegal aliens currently re ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2014 - 11:20am