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93The Great Colonization DebateFutures 110 4-14. 2019.Click on the DOI link to access the article.
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20AddingSpace to Your Class DiscussionsTeaching Ethics 22 (2): 269-290. 2022.Our capabilities in space are growing almost as fast as our ambitions. Many nations, companies, and private actors are currently vying to secure historic “firsts” in space, raising complex social and ethical questions. There is surprisingly little serious analysis of these issues, however, and they are rarely discussed in undergraduate class discussions, despite their popularity with students. To help correct this deficit, a student research team designed 11 case studies to help instructors acro…Read more
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27Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.This book focuses on the emerging scientific discipline of astrobiology, exploring the humanistic issues of this multidisciplinary field. To be sure, there are myriad scientific questions that astrobiologists have only begun to address. However, this is not a purely scientific enterprise. More research on the broader social and conceptual aspects of astrobiology is needed. Just what are our ethical obligations toward different sorts of alien life? Should we attempt to communicate with life beyon…Read more
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129Sober on Brandon on screening-off and the levels of selectionPhilosophy of Science 61 (3): 475-486. 1994.Sober (1992) has recently evaluated Brandon's (1982, 1990; see also 1985, 1988) use of Salmon's (1971) concept of screening-off in the philosophy of biology. He critiques three particular issues, each of which will be considered in this discussion
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72Life as Adaptive Capacity: Bringing New Life to an Old DebateBiological Theory 13 (2): 76-92. 2018.Whatever we take “life” to mean, it must involve an attempt to describe the objective reality beyond scientists’ biases. Traditionally, this is thought to involve comparing our scientific categories to “natural kinds.” But this approach has been tainted with an implicit metaphysics, inherited from Aristotle, that does not fit biological reality. In particular, we must accept that biological categories will never be specifiable in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions or shared underlying …Read more
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The Emperor's New Genes: The Role of the Genome in Development and EvolutionDissertation, Duke University. 1994.Introduction. Gene-centrism, the idea that the genome is the most important factor in biology, is currently the predominant view among both biologists and the lay public. But gene-centric views rest on erroneous assumptions concerning the heritable transmission of information and the nature of causal explanation. Such views must be replaced with more inclusive theories of natural selection and developmental causation. ;Chapter I. The gene-centric approach to biology is shown to be the latest in …Read more
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10I. Introductory Comments   The Human Genome Project will be completed within 2 years, and “targeted†sequence data from the most promising sections of the genome will be released even sooner. Based on this wealth of information, at least 400 new genetic tests will become available within the next decade. The blending of microelectronic and genetic technology will make the “genetic report card†an affordable and routine part of medical care. The implicit assumption driving much of this…Read more
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Using Ethics Labs to set a Framework for Ethical Discussion in an Undergraduate CourseBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 35 (5): 332-36. 2007.
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13Equivocal Notions of Accuracy and Genetic Screening of the General PopulationMount Sinai Journal of Medicine 65 (3): 178-83. 1998.
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171The extended replicatorBiology and Philosophy 11 (3): 377-403. 1996.This paper evaluates and criticises the developmental systems conception of evolution and develops instead an extension of the gene's eye conception of evolution. We argue (i) Dawkin's attempt to segregate developmental and evolutionary issues about genes is unsatisfactory. On plausible views of development it is arbitrary to single out genes as the units of selection. (ii) The genotype does not carry information about the phenotype in any way that distinguishes the role of the genes in developm…Read more
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Towards an Adequate Account of Genetic DiseaseIn Kincaid McKitrick (ed.), Establishing Medical Reality: Essays in Metaphysics and Epistemology of Medicine, Springer. pp. 83-110. 2007.
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25Cosmic EthicsIn C. Bertka N. Roth & M. Shindell (eds.), Workshop Report: Philosophical, Ethical and Theological Implications of Astrobiology, Aaas. 2007.
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67A disease by any other name: Musings on the concept of a genetic diseaseMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 4 (1): 19-30. 2001.What exactly is a genetic disease? For a phrase one hears on a daily basis, there has been surprisingly little analysis of the underlying concept. Medical doctors seem perfectly willing to admit that the etiology of disease is typically complex, with a great many factors interacting to bring about a given condition. On such a view, descriptions of diseases like cancer as geneticseem at best highly simplistic, and at worst philosophically indefensible. On the other hand, there is clearly some pra…Read more
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7I also Survived a Debate with a Creationist (with reflections on the perils of democratic information)Reports of the National Center for Science Education 32 (2). 2012.
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11The Terrestrial Lifeboat Project: An international undertaking to save humanityIn Yangming An (ed.), A New Perspective on Applied Ethics, Renmin Press. pp. 224-38. 2008.
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25Can Intelligent Design Become Respectable?Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20 (4): 40-43. 2001.
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38Foiling the Black KnightSynthese 178 (2): 219-235. 2011.Why is the academy in general, and philosophy in particular, not more involved in the fight against the creationist threat? And why, when a response is offered, is it so curiously ineffective? I argue, by using an analogy with the battle against the Black Knight from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, that the difficulty lies largely in a failure to see the nature of the problem clearly. By modifying the analogy, it is possible to see both why large sections of the academy have remained …Read more
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27The Virtues of Ethical Discussion in the ClassroomIn Eleanor Siebert (ed.), Environmental Literacy and Decision Making: An Interdisciplinary Goal of the 21st Century, Society For College Science Teachers. pp. 26-31. 2004.
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Ethics is Not Rocket Science: How to have ethical discussions in your science classJournal of Microbiology and Biology Education 15 (12): 201-07. 2015.
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The trouble with intrinsic value : an ethical primer for astrobiologyIn Constance M. Bertka (ed.), Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical and Theological Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. 2009.
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18Marketing Structuralism: Reflections on the Process Structuralist Critique of Neo-DarwinismBiology Forum/Revista di Biologica 86 (3-4): 578-79. 1993.
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17Appealing to Ignorance Behind the Cloak of AmbiguityIn Robert T. Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientifc Perspectives, Mit Press. pp. 705-35. 2001.
Clemson, South Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Biology |
Evolutionary Biology, Miscellaneous |