Philosophy & Ethics

We've Forgotten The Trial Of Socrates: Excellence And Winning Aren’t The Same Thing

Surveying news headlines in recent years, it seems that cheating is rampant. In the athletic arena, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for using performance-enhancing drugs. In business, some of the world’s largest banks have ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 18 2015 - 8:30am

In Holland, Doctors Make The Decision To Withhold Treatment For Elderly

In America, the saying used to be 'my doctor should decide my medical treatment, not an insurance company'.  In Netherlands, Dutch doctors do decide, including whether to withhold or withdraw treatment in a substantial proportion of elderly patie ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 20 2015 - 6:34pm

The Murky Ethical Waters Of Marketing To Cancer Patients

By Lisa Marie Potter, Inside Science — A group of doctors clad in white lab coats smiles beneath the heading: "Standing behind your cancer care with nationally recognized excellence." The advertisement was part of the 2009 Dartmouth-Hitchcock he ...

Article - Lisa Marie Potter - May 25 2015 - 10:51am

But Is It Crazy Enough

Not only that the Theory of Everything cannot be reached by empirical science. Experiment cannot even decide which medium level theory is correct and who was supposedly wrong. ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - May 17 2015 - 9:43pm

People Who Don't Subscribe To Moral Relativism Support Harsher Criminal Punishments

Our belief in evil influences our feelings about capital punishment, according to Donald Saucier, associate professor of psychology at Kansas State University and Russell Webster at St. Mary's College of Maryland. They drew their conclusion after abo ...

Article - News Staff - May 20 2015 - 10:43am

Blue Buffalo Admits Its Pet Food Contains The Poultry Byproduct It Ridicules In Competitors

If you have been purchasing Blue Buffalo pet food based on its rather suspicious claims about being "byproduct free", well, that is the power of marketing, no different than organic- and gluten-free manufacturers have created a similar health hal ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2015 - 8:00am

The Real Ghost Of Kubrick's Version Of "The Shining"- Franz Kafka

I have a wife, three children, three dogs, seven cats. I’m not a Franz Kafka, sitting alone and suffering. So wrote Stanley Kubrick in 1972. And indeed, Kafka and Kubrick may not seem to have a whole lot in common. Kafka is Czech, Kubrick American. ...

Article - The Conversation - May 30 2015 - 10:00am

Public Universities Shouldn't Be Making Political Donations

It was recently revealed that the University of Wollongong has spent around A$20,000 over the past five years on lunches and dinners with politicians, including several fundraising events for the Liberal Party. Usually only one person attended these funct ...

Article - The Conversation - Jun 3 2015 - 11:00am

Disabled People Pay For Sex Too: What Happens When Buying It Is Criminalized But Selling Isn't?

Northern Ireland recently changed the law to criminalize the act of paying for sex. This follows a trend set in Sweden, where selling sex is legal but buying it is criminalized. ...

Article - The Conversation - Jun 11 2015 - 11:30am

Sometimes Arguments Are Not Just “Semantics”

I’m a philosopher, working in logic and related issues. This means that I spend a lot of my time working with words and arguments. And sometimes, when I’m not feeling so good about things, it can seem like it doesn’t matter, that it’s all just words. Argu ...

Article - The Conversation - Jun 14 2015 - 8:00am