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Michael McLeod

University of Otago
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  •  40
    Benefits, risks and ethical considerations in translation of stem cell research to clinical applications in Parkinson's disease
    with Z. Master and I. Mendez
    Journal of Medical Ethics 33 (3): 169-173. 2007.
    Stem cells are likely to be used as an alternate source of biological material for neural transplantation to treat Parkinson’s disease in the not too distant future. Among the several ethical criteria that must be fulfilled before proceeding with clinical research, a favourable benefit to risk ratio must be obtained. The potential benefits to the participant and to society are evaluated relative to the risks in an attempt to offer the participants a reasonable choice. Through examination of prec…Read more
    Stem Cell ResearchParkinson's DIsease
  •  35
    Aspirational Naturalism
    Dissertation, University of Otago
    In this thesis I argue for aspirational naturalism. Aspirational naturalism is a metaphilosophical thesis that encourages a continuation of the interdisciplinary relationship between philosophy and science. It is a kind of methodological naturalism, a view about philosophical methodology that treats science with epistemic respect.
  •  131
    Maclaurin and Dyke on Analytic Metaphysics
    with Josh Parsons
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (1): 173-178. 2013.
    We argue that Maclaurin and Dyke's recent critique of non-naturalistic metaphysics suffers from difficulties analogous to those that caused trouble for earlier positivist critiques of metaphysics. Maclaurin and Dyke say that a theory is naturalistic iff it has observable consequences. Depending on the details of this criterion, either no theory counts as naturalistic or every theory does.
    Methodology in Metaphysics