The journal of philosophy, science & law最新文献

{"title":"An Analysis of the Legal Classification of Animals: Toward a Step-wise Deconstruction of the Property Status of Animals","authors":"Ernest Waintraub","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2009911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2009911","url":null,"abstract":"The extent of animal exploitation in American society is staggering. Millions upon millions of animals are killed each year in the name of scientific research. The overwhelming amount of this research occurs for purposes that cannot be regarded as necessary in any meaningful way. From a legal standpoint these practices are justified by the notion that animals are property and thus lack legally enforceable rights to protect their interests from exploitation. This property classification originates from our common law, which in turn derives from ancient laws and philosophies whose foundations have long since been discredited by scientific and moral progress. Science has shown that animal physiology and psychology is so similar to that of humans that any difference in interest must be one of degree and not kind. Moral tenets dictate that competing interests should be analyzed according to the principle of equal consideration so that for instance, my interest in avoiding pain is equal to any other being’s interest in avoiding pain. By treating animals as property the law makes animal interests count for less than that of a person’s interest and thereby permits actions that do not require the equal consideration to animal interests. In this manner the property status of animals has perpetuated the unnecessary exploitation of animals. If the law is to be regarded as capable of resolving current disputes it must rest upon knowledge that is both accurate and complete. This article urges the common law to more completely incorporate our modern scientific and moral understanding of animals into its development.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"79 1","pages":"1-60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79770322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"NEJM, Drug Companies, and the FDA: The Conflict Underlying Levine v. Wyeth","authors":"Charlene L. Smith","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2008844","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2008844","url":null,"abstract":"“Nothing new under the sun.” Product manufacturers, drug companies, and even tug boat owners want to set their own standards when it comes to the products they make or the work they do. Additionally, they want those standards to protect them from tort liability. Even in the 1930’s, a tug boat company tried to argue that the custom of the industry at that time should protect them from liability. Most tug boats did not have radios on board to warn them of imminent storms. Thus, they argued, they would not be liable for barges that sunk in a storm since the custom or standard did not include having radios on board for warning purposes. However, Judge Learned Hand thought otherwise. He told the tug boat owners that when the risks of potential losses were high and the costs to prevent the harm were low, then the industry was not allowed to determine for themselves what was negligent.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"7 1","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79366714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Review of James Davis’s Terms of Inquiry: On the Theory and Practice of Political Science","authors":"Lisa Johnson","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2008833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2008833","url":null,"abstract":"James W. Davis’s Terms of Inquiry: On the Theory and Practice of Political Science (2005) presents a critique of the application of the scientific method to the social sciences. Davis argues that the use of the scientific method obfuscates usable knowledge that might otherwise be gathered by applying methodology more appropriate to the study of social science. Davis, a classically-trained political scientist, became disturbed by the dissociation between disciplinary political science and the practice of politics (p. 2). Additionally, despite the empirical orientation of his training, Davis became dissatisfied with the lack of apparent success in predictive abilities of social science theories, despite these disciplines’ adherence to scientific methodology. These issues propelled the development of this work. His objections do not focus upon the academicians who employ these methods (p. 3); rather, his concerns center upon the appropriateness of the scientific method itself to study social interactions. His assessment rests upon his observations concerning academic political science and international relations (p. ix), though he argues that his conclusions are applicable across social science disciplines (p. 3). Davis examines the assumptions upon which the scientific method rests and illustrates through examples drawn from both the social and natural sciences foundational problems with respect to social science applicability. Overall, Davis succeeds in raising important questions concerning the validity of the use of the scientific method in the social sciences, and his meticulous attention to the problematic pieces of that methodology go far towards this work’s success. However, the book could be more unified to avoid redundancy of ideas and to reduce superfluous examples in some parts, while more fully developing several of the more provocative ideas that inexplicably receive short shrift, and eliminating tangential digressions that add little to his thesis. Additionally, Davis’s general case for neo-interpretivist methodology might collapse under the weight of serious scrutiny.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"60 1","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84149542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Law and Biology","authors":"Morris B Hoffman","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2008822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2008822","url":null,"abstract":"Ten years ago E.O. Wilson, the Harvard entomologist, wrote a remarkably ambitious book called Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, in which he predicted that the ever-accelerating insights of evolutionary biology would drive a fundamental convergence of the social and natural sciences. This essay is considerably less ambitious. I’d like to report on the rather remarkable inroads into the law, and into the legal academy, made by post-Darwinian evolutionary thinking—thinking that is itself deeply resonant with the now well-entrenched law and economics movement. This resonance is beginning to shed light on the mysteries of human behavior, and therefore on the mysteries of human institutions, including law.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"176 1","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82990702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Doing Right in a Shrinking World: How Corporate American Balance Ethics & Profit in a Changing Economy by Louis DeThomasis and Neal St. Anthony","authors":"Dale Hershey","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2007734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2007734","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"27 1","pages":"20-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75456554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Indigenous Yoruba - African Philosophical Argument Against Capital Punishment","authors":"Moses Òkè","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2007733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2007733","url":null,"abstract":"The paper notes that whereas the issue of capital punishment is very old and not alien to any human society, and whereas there is an abundance of literature on Western philosophy of punishment, very little philosophical work on punishment from the African perspective can be cited. By way of filling a part of the lacuna in the literature, the paper examines the Yoruba culture for its perspectives on the death penalty. The paper finds in the Ifa Literary Corpus, though implicit, a strong philosophical argument against capital punishment. The argument, explicated and analyzed, turns out to be an introduction of a skeptical epistemological consideration into the debate over capital punishment in a unique way that raises some other jurisprudential issues relating to judicial administration. The paper concludes that although there may, as would be expected, be other positions on the issue of death penalty in Yoruba culture, the particular argument examined validly makes its point for the abolition of capital punishment, especially when situated in the context of Yoruba social ethic, which is essentially communal and humanistic. The enabling cultural context of the Ifa argument against capital punishment was extended beyond its immediate Yoruba sociocultural context to the pan-African humanistic social ethic conceptualized in Bantu languages of Southern Africa as ‘Ubuntu’, thereby giving the argument a contemporary universal relevance and applicability.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"64 1","pages":"1-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89537645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conflicts of Interest in Scientific Research Related to Regulation or Litigation.","authors":"David B Resnik","doi":"10.5840/jpsl2007722","DOIUrl":"10.5840/jpsl2007722","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines conflicts of interest in the context of scientific research related to regulation or litigation. The article defines conflicts of interest, considers how conflicts of interest can impact research, and discusses different strategies for dealing with conflicts of interest. While it is not realistic to expect that scientific research related to regulation or litigation will ever be free from conflicts of interest, society should consider taking some practical steps to minimize the impact of these conflicts, such as requiring full disclosure of information required for independent evaluation of research, prohibiting financial relationships between regulatory agencies and the companies they regulate, and banning payments to expert witnesses for specific research results, testimony or legal outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"7 ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2700754/pdf/nihms44451.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"28265215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Propriety of Expert Ethics Testimony in the Courtroom: A Discourse.","authors":"T. Oriola","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2006636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2006636","url":null,"abstract":"The propriety of expert ethics testimony in the courtroom is as contentious in academic scholarship as any typical ethical debate could be. Some of the main objections to expert ethics testimony stem partly from fears that it could unduly influence judicial thinking or judgments, or foist prejudicial or idiosyncratic moral views or opinions on judicial decisions. This prospect is perceived as contrary to the tenets of a liberal, pluralistic democratic society, where moral and ethical values should ideally be shared and not dictated. Another crucial argument against expert ethics testimony is the ethicists' propensity to assume the stance of 'moral advocates' bent on pitching clients' agenda, without regards to any merits in the opponents' moral judgments. Yet another anti-expert ethics testimony posits that reliance on it will foster moral laziness. This paper joins the debate by critically analyzing the arguments for and against expert ethics testimony in the context of relevant literature and standard evidentiary rules governing judicial evaluation and admissibility of expert ethics evidence. With a discourse on the nature of moral expertise and the dynamics of expert ethics testimony as a backgrounder, the paper evaluates the validity of the hypothesis that expert ethics testimony could encourage moral tardiness, unduly influence judicial proceedings or imprint narrow, elitist, or prejudicial moral viewpoints on judicial reasoning and judgments.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"54 1","pages":"1-25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90638495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nano-Conceptions: A Sociological Insight of Nanotechnology Conceptions","authors":"G. Delgado-Ramos","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2006625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2006625","url":null,"abstract":"It aims to provide reliable and first-hand data relating to conceptions held by certain key ‘stakeholders' concerning the development process of nanotechnology and its potential social and ethical gaps and implications. Hence, in order to ‘map’ the sociological context in which nanotechnology development is embedded, the Report was envisaged as a ‘constructed dialogue’ on the diversity and similarities of points of views and beliefs of the contributors.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"22 1","pages":"25-57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72728134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Presence of Hypotheses in the Scientific Literature","authors":"N. Desbiens","doi":"10.5840/JPSL2006623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/JPSL2006623","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction The statement of a hypothesis is felt to be a crucial component of properly conducted research. (U.S.E.P.A, 2005) (A.A.A.S., 1990) Once a hypothesis has been conceived, a researcher can then design a study that attempts to support or refute it and determine the level of precision needed to do so, after which the number of study units required can be determined. (Moher 1994, 122) Without a clear statement of the hypothesis, there is risk that investigators will search for associations first and then discuss their “statistically significant” findings later—a process that has a high probability of inflating associations and leading to irreproducible results. (Cui 2002, 347) These are major issues, since validity and reproducibility of findings are undeniable hallmarks of the scientific method.","PeriodicalId":88325,"journal":{"name":"The journal of philosophy, science & law","volume":"89 1","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85963730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}