Philosophy & Ethics

Contemplating Eudaemonia

Contemplating Eudaimonea Some recent discussions here have prompted me to comment on the ideas of happiness and eudaemonia, which are considerations of note in my work. In fact, I’m currently writing a chapter that dares to call itself “The final word on E ...

Blog Post - Brian Taylor - Jul 6 2009 - 2:29am

DNA: When Is A Code Not A Code?

DNA: When Is A Code Not A Code? Stephen C. Meyer is an intelligent design advocate and a co-founder of the Discovery Institute. ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Jul 7 2009 - 10:27pm

The Problems With Transhumanism

I have pondered writing about the transhumanism movement for a while, and the opportunity has finally landed on my desktop when I read a  brief article by Kyle Munkittrick  of the Institute for Emerging Ethics&Technologies. The article is in the form ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 12 2009 - 5:18pm

Update on David versus Goliath- JAMA and Dr. Leo

After a big kerfuffle in March over whether a researcher violated a confidentiality agreement with JAMA, the journal has eased off a bit with an editorial laying out the new policy for reporting conflict of interest. As I noted in a post in March, Dr. Jona ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Jul 8 2009 - 9:30am

Is There A Doctor In The House?

Medical doctors often like to characterize themselves as scientists, and many others in the public are happy to join them in this. I submit, however, that such a characterization is an error. It is not a slur on the profession or its practitioners to say t ...

Article - Gary Herstein - Jul 8 2009 - 11:48pm

Should Pregnant Women Be Included In The National Children's Study?

The National Children's Study is an ideal opportunity to get valuable information about pregnant women's health, the most underrepresented population in clinical research, say ethicists at Duke University Medical Center, Johns Hopkins and Georget ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 10 2009 - 1:00am

Cross-checks on ethics

About a month ago, we had another instance in a series of discredited scientific studies, that latest one in the medical field. The short version here is that Dr Timothy Kuklo, who worked for the U.S. Army, wrote a paper about a bone-growth product called ...

Blog Post - Barry Leiba - Jul 11 2009 - 12:08pm

Moral Inquiry 1: A Case Against Relativism

(This is the first in what I anticipate to be a series of three essays on moral inquiry. The second will be a survey of some traditional themes and their contemporary applications, and the third will focus on the “center” around which such inquiries ought ...

Blog Post - Gary Herstein - Jul 13 2009 - 4:44pm

The Voynich Manuscript: An Enigma, Part #1

The Voynich Manuscript: An Enigma, Part #1 There are many unsolved mysteries in this world.  A web search for 'greatest mysteries', 'unsolved mysteries', 'world's greatest mysteries' and similar search terms leads to man ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Jul 17 2009 - 9:03pm

The Voynich Manuscript: Dating An Enigma

The Voynich Manuscript: An Enigma, Part #2 It is nearly 100 years since the Voynich manuscript arrived in America.  In that time, not one person or group has managed to decode even a single word of it. I suggest that decryption of any document requires as ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Jul 20 2009 - 1:21pm