Biology In Society 2

Front 1

Richard Feynman

Back 1

Scientists need philosophy like birds need ornithology

Front 2

Aristotle

Back 2

'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it'
Pupil of Plato.
Teaches Alexander the Great.
Rejected extreme rationalism and also the experimental approach.
System of classification.
Believed in teleology; everything has a natural function and strives towards fulfilling/exhibiting that function'

Front 3

Blaine pascal

Back 3

'Vanity of science; knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in times of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science'

Front 4

Definitions of science

Back 4

1. A body of knowledge acquired by performing replicated controlled experiments
2.'the acquisition of reliable knowledge about the world' said by jared diamond.
3. A method utilised in organised efforts to formulate explanations of nature, always subject to modifications and corrections through systematic observations' said by Rodney stark

Front 5

John lock

Back 5

'The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster'

Front 6

Wittgenstein

Back 6

'Man has to awaken to wonder and so perhaps do people's, science has a way of sending them to sleep again'

Front 7

Voltaire

Back 7

'Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices'

Front 8

The classical scientific method

Back 8

Method of induction. The gaining of hypothesis from data, feedback looped to give positive or negative evidence for hypothesis.
Formulated by bacon.

Front 9

Hippocrates

Back 9

Replaced the concept of divine causation with one of natural causes. The need to represent nature

Front 10

Thales of Miletus

Back 10

Founder of philosophy,
Critical evaluation of problems- no myths.
No deference to authorities, question everyone.
Began reductionism.

Front 11

Paramendies

Back 11

Everything that exists has always existed, faith in human reason (rationalism)

Front 12

Heraclitus

Back 12

Everything is in flux.
'The road up is never the road down'
'You can never step in the same river twice'

Front 13

Democritus

Back 13

Everything consists of atoms and space

Front 14

Pythagoras

Back 14

Believed he was god like.
Attempted to understand music and showed mathematically sound produced depended on tension and length of string.
Extended the principle of reductionism. Need to express phenomenon mathematically.
'Number is the ruler of forms and ideas'

Front 15

Socrates

Back 15

Opposed democracy.
Asked what you know and why you know it.
A series of graduated small questions to obtain the overall answer.
'The ultimate virtue is the pursuit of truth'
'The unexamined life is not with living'

Front 16

Plato

Back 16

Plato's academy
'The most difficult thing in life is to know thyself'

Front 17

Al-amiri, comment in the Qu'ran

Back 17

Knowledge is the highest form of virtue... You will grow to love the world'

Front 18

Extreme rationalism

Back 18

Socrates and Plato.
Everyday individual things and objects are merely poor copies of the abstract, idealised forms existing beyond the world of experience.

Front 19

Roger Bacon

Back 19

'Science demands careful observation and is grounded in mathematics; experimental science is the queen of knowledge'

Front 20

Williams Occam

Back 20

Occam's razor; if competing theories put faith in the simplest

Front 21

William Gilbert

Back 21

Interested in magnetism, he began to work on series of carefully graduated experiments, each one devised so as to answer a particular question, while the simpler and more obvious facts set forth and their investigation led by orderly stages to that of the more complex and subtle.

Front 22

Francis bacon

Back 22

Inventor and father of science.
Reaffirmed detached objectivity.
'Be like a child before nature'
Adoption of experimental approach
Progress in science is gradual, progressive and evolutionary.
Foundation of the royal society

Front 23

The empiricist s

Back 23

Locke - gain knowledge through experience. No innate knowledge .
Hume- strong empiricist. 'Commit then to the flames'
Berkeley - 'to be is to be perceived'

Front 24

Logical positivism,

Back 24

Ernst Mach, bringing scientific method into philosophy
Alfred Ayer- 'statements about material objects can be reduced to sense data'
Peter strawson- 'philosophy should be concerned with things as we know them, not with some abstruse and abstract world beyond our experience or with some artificial formal theory'

Front 25

Bertrand Russell

Back 25

'We all have a tendancy to think the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and people would rather die than think... In fact they do so.'
Philosophy should be built on science as there is less rick of error In science.
'Science is innocent unless proven guilty, while Philosophy is guilty unless proven innocent'

Front 26

Eugenics program's

Back 26

Nazi euthanasia and experimentation- Joseph mengele, twins.
Us state authorised sterilisations.
Apart hide in South Africa.
Ethic cleansing in Bosnia.
Tutis and Hutus mass genocide (500,000 people killed)

Front 27

Recombinant DNA legislation

Back 27

1970s scientists met in California and discussed regulation of genetic research.
An advisory committee was established and this committee is to advise NIH director.
Dilemmas designed by public, parliament and scientists.

Front 28

Preimplantation genetic diagnostics

Back 28

Diagnosis technique. Tested on 3rd day, 1/2 cells removed from biopsy.
IVF only source.
Is the preembryo a full human? / human rights for forming of whole genome.
Danger of gift child / commodity?

Front 29

Applications of PGD

Back 29

1. Diagnosis of genetic diagnosis. Allows some disease sufferers and carriers to have children, with far less worry about genetic consequences.
2. Selection for tissue matched- saviour siblings
3. Diagnosis of late onset diseases.

Issue of incomplete penetrance, should all embryos be implanted, gender specification. Characteristic selection.

Front 30

Hfea

Back 30

Licences and monitors clinics, IVF. Publicises services provided to the public.
Provides advice and information.
Create and enforce a code of practice

Front 31

Uk laws to PGD

Back 31

Permitted genetic diagnosis.
2004- 'saviour siblings' law relaxed to include cases with benefits only to existing sick child.
Not permitted; gender selection & non medical genetic selection.

Front 32

Science and society paradox

Back 32

Increasing distance and alienation. Science is more and more influential, but decreasingly accepted.

Remedy 1; more transparency.
Deliberation procedures of public participation, consensus conferences, small group discussions, public events, deliberative polls (panels), citizen juries & focus groups.

2; public understanding of science. Events, centres, museums and public ally open lectures.
Science horizons, programme

Front 33

Public opinions on PGD:

Back 33

1. Should embryos be destroyed?
2. Disease or trait involved
3. Technological control over natural production.
4. Value of suffering, disability and differences.
5. The importance of having genetically related children
6. The kind of future people desire or fear

Front 34

Gm crops

Back 34

80% of human and livestock calories come from 4 crops, wheat, rice, maize and soybeans.

Global adoption rates %= cotton 82, soy bean 75, maize 32, canola 26.

Golden rice, bt toxins, tomato, vaccinations.
Food prize crisis,

Front 35

Prof d. Gillies

Back 35

'We naturally want our system of research organisation to encourage major research advances'

Front 36

Research assessment expertise (RAE)

Back 36

Introduced 26 yrs ago.
4*,3 2 1 and u/c. Classification in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

Front 37

Peer review

Back 37

Peer review involves the making of subjective judgements about quality by the proposers peer group.
Should be conducted by members of the peer group who do not personally benefit from the outcome of the matter to be decided, and whose judgement can be accepted as impartial and disinterested.

Front 38

Impact factor

Back 38

Definition, measures frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year.
The institute for scientific information produce lists in journal citation reports.

Front 39

Grant sources

Back 39

Governmental ; eg medical research council, biotech and biological sciences research council.
Charitable ; welcome trust, British heart foundation.

Front 40

Grant application summary

Back 40

Assessment for funding
Assessment by peer review.

Reviewers grade applications.

Front 41

Fanelli 2009

Back 41

Systematic review.
1.97% admitted serious misconduct
33% admitted questionable research practices.
The number of papers published since 1990 has doubled, but the number of retractions has increased ten fold.

Front 42

John Anderton

Back 42

Consultant renal medicine. Fabricated evidence for heart drug trial.
Forged form signatures, patients not told that they were in trial.
Bogus results.
Pfizer sponsored and picked up on forging, called medicolegal investigations.

Front 43

Raphael stricker

Back 43

Falsified aids report.
He suppressed data not supporting hypothesis. He left out 33 controls also showing antibodies, but stated 29/30 homosexuals had.

Front 44

Art Connolly

Back 44

Oxford medical student. Plagiarised article from British medical journal.

Front 45

Tom Phillips

Back 45

Skeptic on whether we will ever agree on what is good and what is bad

Front 46

Jonathan glover

Back 46

A moral maze.
In Europe at the start of the 20th century most people thought there was a moral law which was self evidently obeyed.

Front 47

Lord actin

Back 47

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

Front 48

7 Principle s aimed at building trust between scientists and society

Back 48

1. Act with skill and care, keep skills up to fat
2. Prevent corrupt practice and declare conflicts of interest
3. Respect and acknowledge the work of other scientists.
4. Ensure research is justified and lawful
5. Minimise impacts on people, animals and environment,
6. Discuss issues science raises for society
7 do not mislead; present evidence honestly.

Front 49

Ethics, categories

Back 49

Socratic virtues.
Nietzsche vices
Deontological ethics(kantism) (hare - to be evil is to be illogical)
Consequentialism/ utilitarianism - Jeremy Bentham
Ethics egoism - any rand
Epicurus - happiness
Contractual ism- Hobbes.
Virtue ethics , Plato
Particularism - dancy
Feminists
Environmental ethics
Relativism - all moral beliefs are equally valid.

Front 50

Arthur koestler

Back 50

I am not sure whether what the philosophers call ethical absolutes exist, but I am sure we have to act as if they do