The Context of Ecosystem Theory

Arthur George Tansley's paper “The Temporal Genetic Series as a Means of Approach to Philosophy,” published here for the first time, provides the philosophical context for the development of his ecosystem theory. His rejection of idealist reasoning, his concern with ethics, and his long standing interest in Freudian psychology as well as mechanistic reasoning comprised the intellectual underpinnings for his thinking on systems and ecosystem theory.     

Bacteriophage Biology and Kenneth Schaffner's Rendition of Developmentalism

In this paper I consider Kenneth Schaffner's(1998) rendition of 'developmentalism' from the point of viewof bacteriophage biology. I argue that the fact that a viablephage can be produced from purified DNA and host cellularcomponents lends some support to the anti-developmentalist, ifthey first show that one can draw a principled distinctionbetween genetic and environmental effects. The existence ofhost-controlled phage host range restriction supports thedevelopmentalist's insistence on the parity of DNA andenvironment. However, in the case of bacteriophage, thedevelopmentalist stands on less firm ground than when organismswith nervous systems, such as Schaffner's C. elegans, areconsidered.     

Judgments of moral responsibility in tissue donation cases

If a person requires an organ or tissue donation to survive, many philosophers argue that whatever moral responsibility a biological relative may have to donate to the person in need will be grounded at least partially, if not entirely, in biological relations the potential donor bears to the recipient. We contend that such views ignore the role that a potential donor's unique ability to help the person in need plays in underwriting such judgments. If, for example, a sperm donor is judged to have a significant moral responsibility to donate tissue to a child conceived with his sperm, we think this will not be due to the fact that the donor stands in a close biological relationship to the recipient. Rather, we think such judgments will largely be grounded in the presumed unique ability of the sperm donor to help the child due to the compatibility of his tissues and organs with those of the recipient. In this paper, we report the results of two studies designed to investigate the comparative roles that biological relatedness and unique ability play in generating judgments of moral responsibility in tissue donation cases. We found that biologically related individuals are deemed to have a significant moral responsibility to donate tissue only when they are one of a small number of people who have the capacity to help.     

Too early? on the apparent conflict of astrobiology and cosmology

An interesting consequence of the modern cosmological paradigm is the spatial infinity of the universe. When coupled with naturalistic understanding of the origin of life and intelligence, which follows the basic tenets of astrobiology, and with some fairly incontroversial assumptions in the theory of observation selection effects, this infinity leads, as Ken Olum has recently shown, to a paradoxical conclusion. Olum's paradox is related, to the famous Fermi's paradox in astrobiology and “SETI” studies. We, hereby, present an evolutionary argument countering the apparent inconsistency, and show how, in the framework of a simplified model, deeper picture of the coupling between histories of intelligent/technological civilizations and astrophysical evolution of the Galaxy, can be achieved. This strategy has consequences of importance for both astrobiological studies and philosophy.     

How to Restore Fairness After Doping Infringement?

This article addresses the question how to restore the biggest possible amount of fairness after a discovery of doping infringement. I will analyse eight actions that could be taken: (1) disqualification and re‐ranking, (2) change in official result, (3) medal stripping and medal re‐awarding, (4) ban, (5) rematch, (6) legal action, (7) apology and (8) forgiveness. I conclude that the best way to restore the biggest possible amount of fairness seems to be a selected combination of actions. I also propose that re‐ranking and medal re‐awarding should be accompanied by a ceremony in which the new winners are celebrated because they typically did not have the possibility of enjoying their success in front of the original audience.     

Is infertility a disease and does it matter?

Claims about whether or not infertility is a disease are sometimes invoked to defend or criticize the provision of state‐funded treatment for infertility. In this paper, I suggest that this strategy is problematic. By exploring infertility through key approaches to disease in the philosophy of medicine, I show that there are deep theoretical disagreements regarding what subtypes of infertility qualify as diseases. Given that infertility’s disease status remains unclear, one cannot uncontroversially justify or undermine its claim to medical treatment by claiming that it is or is not a disease. Instead of focusing on disease status, a preferable strategy to approach the debate about state‐funded treatment is to explicitly address the specific ethical considerations raised by infertility. I show how this alternative strategy can be supported by a recent theoretical framework in the philosophy of medicine which avoids the problems associated with the concepts of health and disease.     

Ernst Mayr's influence on the history and philosophy of biology: A personal memoir

Mayr has made both conceptual and professional contributions to the establishment of the history and philosophy of biology. His conceptual contributions include, among many others, the notion of population thinking. He has also played an important role in the establishment of history and philosophy of biology as viable professional disciplines.     

Four thoughts on Charles Mills – Black rights/white wrongs: the critique of racial liberalism

In what follows I provide a review of Charles Mills’ text, Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism. In four points I critique and build upon Mills’ contributions on (1) the multidimensional character of race, (2) the faith in liberalism to alleviate racial injustices, (3) the place of patriarchal tendencies in philosophy, and (4) the “white space” of sociology.