Philosophy & Ethics

What Does It Mean For Something To Be Metaphysically Necessary?

I mentioned before, this semester I’m teaching a graduate level seminar on David Hume, and having lots of fun with it. During a recent discussion of sections 4 and 5 of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (“Sceptical doubts concerning the operations ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Apr 2 2014 - 1:13am

Ethics: Deciding Health Standards For Extended Spaceflights

In modern NASA culture, extended spaceflight might as well be science fiction. The no-risk requirement coupled with volumes of employment criteria, rules and regulations were why the Constellation program was going to take far longer to go back to the moo ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 3 2014 - 12:23pm

The Dead Mouse Argument

The Dead Mouse Argument By whatever choice of words it is often argued that because one thing leads to another, adverse consequences must inevitably follow if the opponent's proposed course of action is taken. By whatever choice of words, the above p ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Apr 25 2014 - 9:24pm

Climate Negotiations- Forget Conferences, Top Countries And Side Agreements Are The Way To Get It Done

For more than two decades, members of the United Nations have sought to forge an agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, but international climate negotiations have had limited success. ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2014 - 1:55pm

Neil Tyson And The Value Of Philosophy

Reprinted from Scientia Salon. You can read the original here. It seems like my friend Neil deGrasse Tyson [1] has done it again: he has dismissed philosophy as a useless enterprise, and actually advised bright students to stay away from it. It is not the ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - May 17 2014 - 9:20am

Liverpool Care Pathway Death Panels Were 'Too Extreme'- But So Are Ending Them

The decision to jettison the controversial approach to dying known as the Liverpool Care Pathway was "too extreme" given that its principles were considered by proponents as the best examples of palliative care in the world, argues a senior ethi ...

Article - News Staff - May 21 2014 - 11:00pm

Terminally Ill Physicians Would Choose Do Not Resuscitate- For Themselves, Not For You

Most physicians would choose a do-not-resuscitate or "no code" status for themselves when they are terminally ill, yet they tend to pursue aggressive, life-prolonging treatment for patients facing the same prognosis. Hypocritical? No, Hippocrati ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2014 - 6:00pm

Where To Stop Treatment For A Sick Patient

In the debate over government control of health care in the United States, critics looked at the UK system and its death panels, which drew an arbitrary line on when to stop treatment. Their recent efforts led to such an outcry that the government has sai ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 1 2014 - 10:31am

Criminal Behavior Is Genetic: Great Courtroom Theater But Suspect Science

Since it is election season in America, we can expect a new wave of social psychology papers claiming that political liberals are smarter and more creative than political conservatives. It makes good mainstream news fodder, just like sexism in hurricane n ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2014 - 1:16pm

Compassion And Euthanasia Don't Always Jibe, Philosophically

Compassion can produce counterintuitive results, challenging prevailing views of empathy's effects on moral judgment, say philosophers in a new paper To understand how humans make moral choices, the philosophers asked subjects to respond to a variety ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2014 - 10:52am