The ethics of doing policy relevant science: The precautionary principle and the significance of non-significant results

The precautionary principle is a widely accepted policy norm for decision making under uncertainty in environmental management, However, some of the traditional ways of ensuring trustworthy results used in environmental science and of communicating them work contrary to the general goal of providing the political system and the public with as good an input as possible in the decision making process. For example, it is widely accepted that scientists should only communicate results fulfilling the traditional scientific standard for hypothesis testing. The need for introducing complementary norms in environmental science is illustrated by a recent discussion among scientists on how the precautionary principle should be used in the context of marine biological studies. This discussion highlights the importance of the use of statistical power in communicating scientific results to decision makers and to the general public as well as to the scientific peers. We argue that it would be unethical to report only certainties—because of the need of early warnings—and it would in the same way be unethical to hide the uncertainties. Environmental science can make a better contribution to environmental decision making, if the available knowledge is communicated in a manner which allows for insight on how strong the evidence is.     

明代《阵记》中的人力资源管理心理思想研究

在明代的诸多军事著作中,何良臣的《阵记》颇具独创,尤其是在人力资源管理心理方面提出了许多很有价值的观点。他提出了人员选拔的标准,主张重品性素质,招乡间诚实之人;重心理素质,首取胆气精神、提出了人员训练方法,要求教以礼义,养其荣辱;教练武艺,张胆作气,将技能训练与训练士兵的心理素质结合起来。提出了“尽人之才,以致其用”的用人原则,以及恒常、公平、适度的激励原则。     

THE WEAK ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE AND THE DESIGN ARGUMENT

Abstract. The design argument for God's existence was critically assessed when in the growth of modern science the cognitive value of ideological categories was called into question. In recent discussions dealing with anthropic principles there has appeared a new version of the design argument, in which cosmic design is described without the use of ideological terms. The weak anthropic principle (WAP), a most critical version of all these principles, describes the fine-tuning of physical parameters necessary lo the genesis of carbon-based life. It defines no physical mechanisms of the observed coordination between physical parameters. If in a future unified physical theory such mechanisms are discovered, the weak anthropic principle should be replaced by the strong anthropic principle, which asserts the physical necessity of fine-tuning. Neither of the versions can be regarded as physically trivial unless one accepts strong assumptions of the existence of parallel universes. Consequently, a new version of the philosophical design argument can be developed on the basis of the weak anthropic principle.     

THE FUTURE OF TEILHARDIAN THEOLOGY

Abstract. The impossibility of predicting the future allows us only to indicate which theological developments seem to be needed. These developments concern our changing perception of the world, which requires a reversal in our understanding of God's Creation, from its most imperfect beginnings to its unforeseeable future. The passing of evolution from the biological to the human level has opened moral dimensions that must be explored. Rather than return to the beginnings of the church, theology needs to try to understand Christian faith within evolution, to reinterpret the past in the light of the new. In evolution, no final doctrine is possible. The necessity for doctrine creates a constant tension with the necessity of its revision. New truth must be paid for by suffering. The need is for a coherent theological vision of Creation, Redemption, and God's action in the world. Teilhard's metaphysics of union may be the key to it. In this view love becomes the central force of creation, which in Teilhard's view opens into an eternal future in God: in its final stage, evolution becomes Christogenesis.     

关于肿瘤专科诊疗最优化与过度医疗

肿瘤专科诊疗最优化准则有狭义、广义之分,二者既有区别,更有联系.肿瘤专科诊疗的过度医疗的内容是动态发展的,在特定情况下有其积极意义.实现肿瘤专科诊疗最优化,避免过度医疗,要重视矛盾问题"底线"的研究,提供相对宽松的技术、学术、文化氛围;医者持续的、有计划的专业学习与培训是增强其主体性的保证和前提;要充分考虑"可承受性"原则;用新的医德价值观指导现实中的医学道德实践;积极发挥医院伦理委员在肿瘤专科诊疗决策中的作用;建立与利用医务人员诚信档案.     

晚期乳腺癌如何选择内外科治疗

晚期乳腺癌包括局部病变较晚、无法直接手术的患者和初诊时已有远地转移M1及手术后的复发转移患者。目前,我们国家对于这些患者的处理非常混乱,往往初始治疗与首次接诊医生的专业范围大有相关。孤立病灶的晚期乳腺癌患者,全身播散背景已成定势,全身药物治疗才是最重要的治疗手段。对于已经全身转移的晚期乳腺癌患者来讲,是否加用局部病灶切除,需根据患者的全身情况而定。任何一种治疗的选择及安排都应按照药品临床试验管理规范（GCP）原则进行,以期最大限度改善生活质量及生存时间。     

人类增强技术的伦理考量

人类增强技术作为利用高新技术提高人类机体功能或能力的一种技术干预手段,是对人类身体进行的一种技术上的改变,这必然在“人是什么”、社会公平、安全与自主权等方面引发一定的社会伦理问题。而这正是对“人是目的,而不仅仅是手段”这一绝对律令的违背。由此需要对人类增强技术进行全面的评估,从坚守“增强底线原则”、相关法规的制定和加强伦理审查等方面采取有效对策,预防或减少不良后果的产生。这样才能保证人类增强技术的发展做到有效性与合理性、真理性与价值性、安全性与效益性的完美统一。     

Conventionalism Revisited

Conventionalism in sport philosophy has been rejected as unable to provide a theory of normativity and as collapsing in ethical relativism, but this criticism is rather imprecise about its target, which invites doubt about the legitimacy of the concept of conventionalism described by its critics. Instead, a more charitable and legitimate account of conventionalism is proposed, one that draws inspiration from conventionalism in axiomatic geometry and is able to avoid the counterarguments directed against conventionalism. This new model allows for a number of non-conventional elements of sport, namely the definition of sport and certain central moral norms, while at the same time arguing that normativity in sport is not exhausted by them, which leaves athletic communities with authority over a broad range of norms.     

A Puzzle Regarding Reid's Theory of Motives

In Essays on the Active Powers, Thomas Reid offers two different accounts of motives. According to the first, motives are the ends for which we act. According to the second, they are mental states, such as desires, that incite us to action. These two accounts, I claim, do not fit comfortably with Reid's agent causal account of human action. My project in this article is to explain why and then to propose a strategy for reconciling these two accounts with Reid's views about action.