Philosophy & Ethics

Just War is the area of ethics that used in determining when a nation can legitimately go to war, legitimate and ethical behavior in war, and finally the legitimate way to end a war. Just War criteria helps us determine whether a particular war is just or unjust. In practicum Just War lays the foundation for the way the military acts but also the way policy makers shape the debate concerning some of the most pressing issues of our time.  This post is an overview and will the first of a series.  Jus ad Bello criteria is used before a war is started to determine whether entering that…

Here's a little exercise in scientific thinking. What's wrong the approach to science described in the following passage? (This passage, about applying network analysis to counterterrorism, is taken from the complex systems special feature in the July 24th issue of Science.) McCulloh and Carley used metanetwork analysis to analyze 1500 videos made by insurgents in Iraq. "The insurgents would videotape most of their attacks as propaganda," says McCulloh. "As of March 2006, we had something like almost three out of every four U.S. deaths [on tape]." Carley extracted data from these videos, he…

The Lockerbie Injustice To those victims’ relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered. To those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to you. Abdul Ali al-Megrahi Today, Abdul Ali al-Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds.  I rejoice at that decision.  Ever since he was named as the Lockerbie bomber I have had exceedingly strong doubts that he was even so much as implicated, let alone the bomb-builder.  I would like to share my thoughts about this. There was a…

Science has the power to enlighten, create and heal.  Science has helped decode the mysteries that surrounds us and translate that knowledge into objects are useful and possess a great amount of utility.  There is a darker side to all this. To quote one of the creators of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, "I am become death. Destroyer of worlds."  Science is as useful tool to enlighten as it is to destroy. Science and war are often inseparably enterprises. Both science and war are guided by inter related paradigms. A paradigm is the culmination and expression of that…

In discussing individualism and collectivism it needs to be clear that this represents overall philosophical perspectives that aren't confined to simple economic or political interpretations.  Rather these ideas permeate human society, its interactions, and the subgroups within it. It is interesting to note that many people want to advocate one philosophical position over another rather than recognizing that regardless of our personal preferences, these viewpoints are a part of human society and are responsible for the social circumstances we find ourselves in.  It makes little…

Researchers who want to include surgeries in studies have to make first contact through non-medical administration staff who act as roadblocks, says a group of researchers whose planned leg ulceration study was hamstrung by a physician recruitment rate of 2% and who have published the reasons why so many surgeons did not participate. The qualitative information, featured in the open access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology, may be of use to those designing trials of their own.  Given the current health care debate in America, another layer of bureaucracy and the impact on…

Labels on prescription drugs tell you what researchers know about the medication, but what is left out can be important as well and researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine think it's high time that the labeling tell you what isn't known. Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and colleagues write in an essay in the New England Journal of Medicine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should require drug manufacturers to state how new medications compare with similar, existing treatments. In many…

What do you do if you're stuck between a banana and a hard place? The slippery slope of paying extortionists tripped up Chiquita in the late 1990s and early 2000s, much like Donald below... But two years after the company agreed to pay a $25 million fine for paying violent paramilitaries in Colombia to protect its employees there, Chiquita is still dealing with the fallout. If you were the CEO of Chiquita, what would you have done? A Boatload of Baddies Chiquita, famous for its bananas, has made a boatload of money in the Uraba and Santa Marta regions of Columbia. The company employed 3,500…

If you're the family member of a critical care patient, you prefer doctors to keep their opinions on life support decisions to themselves, according to new research that challenges a long-held belief in the critical care community that caregivers want advice on the matter .  The research found that surrogates are virtually split when it comes to how much guidance they want to receive from physicians in making end-of-life medical choices on behalf of critically ill patients, according to lead author of the paper, Douglas B. White, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "In fact,…

Inquiry is fundamentally different from stated conclusions, even when those conclusions can be legitimately qualified as knowledge (which is to say, as the products of valid inquiry). One can ennunciate a profound truth without ever even remotely approaching the effort of inquiry needed to earn that truth. This is one of those "enough monkeys randomly pounding on typewriters" observations; sooner or later even the most capricious and willfully arbitrary of productions will generate something that is "true," "correct," "interesting," etc. [1] But such "results" are devoid of any philosophical…