WHY MORAL PHILOSOPHERS ARE NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE MORAL EXPERTS

Professional philosophers are members of bioethical committees and regulatory bodies in areas of interest to bioethicists. This suggests they possess moral expertise even if they do not exercise it directly and without constraint. Moral expertise is defined, and four arguments given in support of scepticism about their possession of such expertise are considered and rejected: the existence of extreme disagreement between moral philosophers about moral matters; the lack of a means clearly to identify moral experts; that expertise cannot be claimed in that which lacks objectivity; and that ordinary people do not follow the advice of moral experts. I offer a better reason for scepticism grounded in the relation between moral philosophy and common‐sense morality: namely that modern moral philosophy views even a developed moral theory as ultimately anchored in common‐sense morality, that set of basic moral precepts which ordinary individuals have command of and use to regulate their own lives. Even if moral philosophers do nevertheless have a limited moral expertise, in that they alone can fully develop a set of moral judgments, I sketch reasons – grounded in the values of autonomy and of democracy – why moral philosophers should not wish non‐philosophers to defer to their putative expertise.     

EXTINCTION RATES SHOULD NOT BE ESTIMATED FROM MOLECULAR PHYLOGENIES

Molecular phylogenies contain information about the tempo and mode of species diversification through time. Because extinction leaves a characteristic signature in the shape of molecular phylogenetic trees, many studies have used data from extant taxa only to infer extinction rates. This is a promising approach for the large number of taxa for which extinction rates cannot be estimated from the fossil record. Here, I explore the consequences of violating a common assumption made by studies of extinction from phylogenetic data. I show that when diversification rates vary among lineages, simple estimators based on the birth–death process are unable to recover true extinction rates. This is problematic for phylogenetic trees with complete taxon sampling as well as for the simpler case of clades with known age and species richness. Given the ubiquity of variation in diversification rates among lineages and clades, these results suggest that extinction rates should not be estimated in the absence of fossil data.     

金花茶拉丁名要更改

<正> 在中山大学学报(自然科学版)第30卷第3期(1991)上,张宏达教授和叶创兴先生发表了一篇研究报告,报道他们在研究山茶属(Camellia)植物当中,发现金花茶原植物早在四十年代已为戚经文先生定为新种,命名为Camellia nitidissima Chi,发表在国立中山大学理学院植物研究所专刊(Sunyatsonia)第了卷第1—2期上,19—20页,图版5。根据国际植物命名法规关于优先律的条款,对1965年胡先骗教授命名为 Theopsis chrysantha     

保护大鲵的栖息环境

大鲵Ａｎｄｒｉａｓｄａｖｉｄｉａｎｕｓ在甘肃省分布于南部文县、康县、徽县、天水等地,文县是重点分布区。近年来大鲵的数量下降,分布区逐渐缩小,被列为国家重点保护的珍稀动物。大鲵栖息在水质清新、水流湍急的山溪或河岸边岩洞、大石下、石隙或水草繁茂的凹坑内。水质浑浊,使其呼吸受阻,甚至导致死亡。1988年甘肃省进行湿地动物资源调查。我在文县白水江自然保护区大鲵的主要分布区浪水河、丹堡河、白水江、白龙江等地调查大鲵的数量。在江河中看到原来清澈如镜的水质,现在非常混浊。其原因是这些江河近多年来成了淘金的场所,江河面上…     

CONSUMERS REPORT PREFERENCES WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY

If a chi‐squared analysis were to be performed to determine whether preferences were significant in a paired preference test, the appropriate expected frequencies in the analysis would represent those that would occur should the consumers have no preference. One way of determining these ‘no preference’frequencies, for a particular test situation, would be to note the preference responses obtained when the stimuli were putatively identical. Over 2000 consumers were given paired preference tests in which the stimuli were putatively identical. Response conditions and consumer groups were varied and the proportions of preference and no preference responses were noted. In a preliminary experiment, further research was seen to be justified when for putatively identical stimuli, judges did not exclusively express lack of preference; many expressed a preference for one or other of the stimuli. Further experiments were conducted using a written response condition and putatively identical potato chips (potato crisps) as stimuli. Using a single ‘no preference’option, variation in the placement of this option at either first, second or third place on the response sheet had no significant effect on the response frequencies. The proportion of ‘no preference’responses was approximately 30% in all cases. A previously reported 40‐20‐40 distribution was not always confirmed. The experiment was repeated with Korean consumers; these had fewer ‘no preference’responses. Deriving preferences from hedonic scales, rather than having judges respond to preference options, increased the proportion of ‘no preference’responses, with American judges still having more than Korean judges. Yet there are logical objections to extracting preference data from hedonic scales. Increasing the number of ‘no preference’options to two or three, had the effect of increasing the number of ‘no preference’responses up to as much as approximately 60%. Extending the results to Koreans, using two ‘no preference’options, it was seen that only the judges in an anonymous response condition had significantly fewer ‘no preference’responses than Americans. The use of these response frequencies as expected frequencies in chi squared analyses was illustrated, after adjustments for counterbalancing.     

中国生物多样性热点地区评估与优先保护重点的确定应该重视

近年来 ,物种灭绝的加剧 ,遗传多样性的减少 ,以及生态系统特别是热带森林的大面积破坏 ,引起了国际社会对生物多样性问题的极大关注 ,纷纷采取措施予以保护。然而 ,由于投入的人力和财力的限制以及政策等方面存在的问题 ,生物多样性丧失的态势并没有从根本上得到遏制。从保护的效率上考虑 ,保护行动应有明确的目标或重点的对象 (地区或类群等 )。自然保护国际 (Conservation Interna-tional)一直倡导的热点地区途径受到国际社会的重视。对于生物多样性保护策略的制订包括自然保护区的合理布局等具有重要的参考价值。Myers(1 988)在分析热…