Philosophy & Ethics

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…

(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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

DNA : When Is A Code Not A Code ?Stephen C. Meyer is an intelligent design advocate and a co-founder of the Discovery Institute. The core argument of Stephen Meyer’s book, Signature in a Cell,…

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…

Philosophers have the embarrassing habit of apologizing for formal logic. Mathematicians don’t bother because they don’t care -- they’re just interested in the pretty pretty symbols and waste no part…