•  479
    Beyond Paper
    The Monist 97 (2). 2014.
    The authors outline the way in which documents as social objects have evolved from their earliest forms to the electronic documents of the present day. They note that while certain features have remained consistent, processes regarding document authentication are seriously complicated by the easy reproducibility of digital entities. The authors argue that electronic documents also raise significant questions concerning the theory of ‘documentality’ advanced by Maurizio Ferraris, especially given…Read more
  •  24
    This book is an easy to read, yet comprehensive introduction to practical issues in research ethics and scientific integrity. It addresses questions about what constitutes appropriate academic and scientific behaviors from the point of view of what Robert Merton called the “ethos of science.” In other words, without getting into tricky questions about the nature of the good or right (as philosophers often do), Koepsell’s concise book provides an approach to behaving according to the norms of sci…Read more
  •  542
    Creating a Controlled Vocabulary for the Ethics of Human Research: Towards a biomedical ethics ontology
    with Robert Arp, Jennifer Fostel, and Barry Smith
    Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics 4 (1): 43-58. 2009.
    Ontologies describe reality in specific domains in ways that can bridge various disciplines and languages. They allow easier access and integration of information that is collected by different groups. Ontologies are currently used in the biomedical sciences, geography, and law. A Biomedical Ethics Ontology would benefit members of ethics committees who deal with protocols and consent forms spanning numerous fields of inquiry. There already exists the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI)…Read more
  •  20
    Philosophy and Breaking Bad (edited book)
    with Kevin S. Decker and Robert Arp
    Palgrave Macmillan. 2016.
    This volume considers the numerous philosophical ideas and arguments found in and inspired by the critically acclaimed series Breaking Bad. This show garnered both critical and popular attention for its portrayal of a cancer-stricken, middle-aged, middle-class, high school chemistry teacher’s drift into the dark world of selling methamphetamine to support his family. Its characters, situations, and aesthetic raise serious and familiar philosophical issues, especially related to ethics and morali…Read more
  •  1
    The Ontology of Cyberspace
    Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. 1997.
    "Cyberspace" is a term used commonly but without adequate definition. All computer-mediated phenomena may be said to comprise cyberspace. So far, no adequate ontology of cyberspace has been formulated. The law of intellectual property has attempted to fit computer-mediated phenomena into the current legal scheme. Currently, the law of intellectual property distinguishes between the subjects of patent law , and the subject of copyright law . The distinction embodied in the law of intellectual pro…Read more
  •  196
    Letter to the Editor: Dealing with socially constructed concepts in an ontology
    Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics 4 (2): 75-76. 2009.
    Response to the paper “The Biomedical Ethics Ontology Proposal: Excellent Aims, Questionable Methods" by James DuBois, published in the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
  • Is there a God? Go Ask Alice
    Free Inquiry 26 14-14. 2006.
  •  53
    Breaking bad and philosophy (edited book)
    with Robert Arp
    Open Court. 2012.
    Breaking Bad, hailed by Stephen King, Chuck Klosterman, and many others as the best of all TV dramas, tells the story of a man whose life changes because of the medical death sentence of an advanced cancer diagnosis. The show depicts his metamorphosis from inoffensive chemistry teacher to feared drug lord and remorseless killer. Driven at first by the desire to save his family from destitution, he risks losing his family altogether because of his new life of crime. In defiance of the tradition t…Read more
  • The Thin Edge of the Wedge
    Free Inquiry 26 32-33. 2006.
  •  35
    Review of Interfaces on Trial 2.0 (review)
    Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 7 (1). 2013.
  •  55
    On genies and bottles: Scientists' moral responsibility and dangerous technology r&d
    Science and Engineering Ethics 16 (1): 119-133. 2010.
    The age-old maxim of scientists whose work has resulted in deadly or dangerous technologies is: scientists are not to blame, but rather technologists and politicians must be morally culpable for the uses of science. As new technologies threaten not just populations but species and biospheres, scientists should reassess their moral culpability when researching fields whose impact may be catastrophic. Looking at real-world examples such as smallpox research and the Australian “mousepox trick”, and…Read more
  • Humanist 'Leadership' and Me
    Free Inquiry 30 34-36. 2010.
  •  17
    Copyright Genes, Embryos
    In Arthur L. Caplan & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in bioethics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 25--152. 2014.
  • A Regular Guy
    Free Inquiry 27 18-18. 2007.
  • The End of Faith in Politics
    Free Inquiry 27 16-17. 2007.
  •  1
    Human Research Ethics Committees in Technical Universities
    with Willem-Paul Brinkman and Sylvia Pont
    Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics 9 (3): 67-73. 2014.
    Human research ethics has developed in both theory and practice mostly from experiences in medical research. Human participants, however, are used in a much broader range of research than ethics committees oversee, including both basic and applied research at technical universities. Although mandated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, non-medical research involving humans need not receive ethics review in much of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Our survey o…Read more
  •  28
    John R. Searle’s 1995 publication The Construction of Social Reality is the foundation of this collection of scholarly papers examining Searle's philosophical theories. Searle’s book sets out to reconstruct the ontology of the social sciences through an analysis of linguistic practices in the context of his celebrated work on intentionality. His book provided a stimulating account of institutional facts such as money and marriage and how they are created and replicated in everyday social life. T…Read more
  •  7
    Book reviews (review)
    Philosophical Psychology 11 (3): 389-397. 1998.
  •  30
    Science and ethics: can science help us make wise moral judgments? (edited book)
    with Paul Kurtz
    Prometheus Books. 2007.
    This volume presents a unique collection of authors who generally maintain that science can help us make wise choices and that an increase in scientific knowledge can help modify our ethical values and bring new ethical principles into social awareness.
  •  41
  •  6
    Reply to Sung
    In Arthur L. Caplan & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in bioethics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 25--164. 2014.
  • One Unholy Alliance
    Free Inquiry 26 14-14. 2006.
  •  115
    Human Participants in Engineering Research: Notes from a Fledgling Ethics Committee
    with Willem-Paul Brinkman and Sylvia Pont
    Science and Engineering Ethics 21 (4): 1033-1048. 2015.
    For the past half-century, issues relating to the ethical conduct of human research have focused largely on the domain of medical, and more recently social–psychological research. The modern regime of applied ethics, emerging as it has from the Nuremberg trials and certain other historical antecedents, applies the key principles of: autonomy, respect for persons, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice to human beings who enter trials of experimental drugs and devices :168–175, 2001). Institut…Read more
  • Cfi Goes To China
    Free Inquiry 25. 2005.