Philosophy & Ethics

Person-First Language Police: Behind The Times

Miss Wombles, 1. Person first language. Learn about it. This is the first clue that indicates to me that you are not equipped to have this type of discussion.-- part of a new comment on a two-year-old post The post, in itself, and the remainder of the per ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Jun 6 2012 - 10:29am

Criminalizing Choice Is 'Leading The Way'- When It Is Your Pet Belief

Do you want to ban cigarettes and legalize marijuana?  Did you cheer when a judge in one state broke the law regarding the Ten Commandments and hissed when a judge in another state broke the law regarding gay marriage? Freedom is a moving target, as is soc ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 13 2012 - 4:55pm

The Descent of Religion: Its Evolution from Nurturing to Bullying...and Back!

I'm thoroughly impressed with " The Descent of Religion: Its Evolution from Nurturing to Bullying...and Back!" by Liz Carr-Harris.　 It is a singular work of research; fearless in its questioning of scientific consensus. I think Liz's c ...

Blog Post - Alan Hoshor - Jun 16 2012 - 9:46am

The Ethics Of Humor

Plato and a platypus walked into a bar. The bartender gave the philosopher a quizzical look, and Plato said, “What can I say? ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jun 20 2012 - 5:30am

Controversial HPV Vaccine Trial In India Should Never Have Been Run

A trial of HPV vaccines in India, which has now been halted and is the subject of an investigation by the Indian government, was examining the safety and feasibility of offering a vaccine against the virus associated with cervical cancer.  The trial was ru ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 21 2012 - 12:45am

Platonic Ignorance

Plato famously maintained that knowledge is “justified true belief,” meaning that to claim the status of knowledge our beliefs (say, that the earth goes around the sun, rather than the other way around) have to be both true (to the extent this can actually ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 6 2012 - 4:27pm

Eugenics- Coming To A Rich Country Near You

Eugenics, the darling of elite, educated progressives 100 years ago in their quest to create Utopia, has been out of favor since those crazy Germans took it too far in the late 1930s, but there is one sound reason it found favor; why wouldn't we elimi ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 4 2013 - 6:57pm

The Survival Software of our Nervous System as the Generator of Beliefs

Since the unicellular creature, going through the evolution of the living organisms, until the recently ones, with complex and different kind of neurons, the nervous system has had only one purpose; to receive a particular change of energy of the environm ...

Blog Post - Arturo Pèrez-Arteaga - Jul 16 2012 - 7:56pm

Neurological Surgery Professor Paul Muizelaar Banned For Illegal Experiments

In 2010, when Dr. Paul  Muizelaar of U.C. Davis began performing illegal experimental treatments on terminally ill brain cancer patients, he earned over $800,000. (1) That's pretty good money for an academic, especially while we are enduring the polit ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 22 2012 - 11:14am

Love Drugs And The Perils Of Human Enhancement

The latest issue of Philosophy Now features an interesting collection of articles on human enhancement, with articles arguing that the approach is “essential” to humans in order to avoid catastrophes, that it can be used to extend youthfulness, and so on. ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 30 2012 - 10:25am