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The article offers information on the role of precautionary principle in social philosophy. It states that precautionary principle is fundamentally a principle born in the context of public policy and includes in a framework that provide a policy which permits action that raises the prospect of a threat of harm to others. It also discusses on principles as an interface rule and moral rule and provide justification for precautionary principle.

The Precautionary Principle is a guide to coping with scientific uncertainties in the assessment and management of risks. In recent years, it has moved to the forefront of debates in policy and applied ethics, becoming a key normative tool in policy discussions in such diverse areas as medical and scientific research, health and safety regulation, environmental regulation, product development, international trade, and even judicial review. The principle has attracted critics who claim that it is fundamentally incoherent, too vague to guide policy, and makes demands that are logically and scientifically impossible. In this paper we will answer these criticisms by formulating guidelines for its application that ensure its coherence as a useful normative guide in applied and policy ethics debates. We will also provide analyses of cases that demonstrate how our version of the principle functions in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All agree that if the Milgram experiments were proposed today they would never receive approval from a research ethics board. However, the results of the Milgram experiments are widely cited across a broad range of academic literature from psychology to moral philosophy. While interpretations of the experiments vary, few commentators, especially philosophers, have expressed doubts about the basic soundness of the results. What I argue in this paper is that this general approach to the experiments might be in error. I will show that the ethical problems that would prevent the experiments from being approved today actually have an effect on the results such that the experiments might show less than many currently suppose. Making this case demonstrates two conclusions. The first is that there are good reasons to think that the conclusions of many of Milgram’s commentators might be too strong. The second conclusion is a more general one. The ethics procedures commonly used by North American research ethics boards serve not only to protect human participants in research but also can sometimes help secure, to an extent, the integrity of results. In other words, good ethics can sometimes mean better science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I claim that Quinean naturalist accounts of science, that deny that there are any a priori statements in scientific frameworks, cannot account for the foundational role of certain classes of statements in scientific practice. In this I follow Michael Friedman who claims that certain a priori statements must be presupposed in order to formulate empirical hypotheses. I also show that Friedman's account, in spite of his claims to the contrary, is compatible with a type of non-Quinean naturalism that I sketch. Finally I also show that Friedman's account needs amending because it cannot provide a rational account of theory change. I accomplish this by arguing for a structural realist view of theory change. I show how this view fits well with an account like Friedman's and helps it deal with the problem of theory change and in retaining its superiority over Quinean naturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically contrasts Laudan's normative naturalism with Friedman's arguments about the importance of a priori concepts in scientific methodology. I do not take issue with Laudan's claim that taking philosophy and science to be continuous does not preclude a normative role for the philosophy of science. The main focus of criticism instead is Laudan's assertion that if normative philosophy employs the methods found in the sciences themselves, then this precludes any a priori or philosophical justification of methodological rules. I make the case that not only are such justifications possible, they are central to any proper philosophical understanding of scientific methodology, and must figure prominently in any plausible version of normative naturalism. To make this case I sketch Laudan's position and his reasons for the ban on a priori justification. I then contrast Laudan's position with Friedman's recent studies on the prominence of relativised constitutive a priori principles within science and show that this view can serve as the basis of a contrasting variation of naturalised philosophy of science.! elucidate Friedman's position in order to identify some prima facie difficulties with Laudan's ban on the a priori in our understanding of science but also to provide an example of a competing variation of philosophical naturalism. Finally, I further highlight the difficulties that attend Laudan's position through a case study, the central methodological role of renormalisation in quantum field theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a general consensus has been developing in the philosophy of science to the effect that strong social constructivist accounts are unable to adequately account for scientific practice. Recently, however, a number of commentators have formulated an attenuated version of constructivism that purports to avoid the difficulties that plague the stronger claims of its predecessors. Interestingly this attenuated form of constructivism finds philosophical support from a relatively recent turn in the literature concerning scientific realism. Arthur Fine and a number of other commentators have argued that the realism debate ought to be abandoned. The rationale for this argument is that the debate is sterile for it has, it is claimed, no consequence for actual scientific practice, and therefore does not advance our understanding of science or its practice. Recent “softer” accounts of social constructivism also hold a similar agnostic stance to the realism question. I provide a survey of these various agnostic stances and show how they form a general position that I shall refer to as “the anti-philosophical stance”. I then demonstrate that the anti-philosophical stance fails by identifying difficulties that attend its proposal to ban philosophical interpretation. I also provide examples of instances where philosophical stances to the realism question affect scientific practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I address some shortcomings in Larry Laudan’s normative naturalism. I make it clear that Laudan’s rejection of the “meta-methodology thesis”, or MMT is unnecessary, and that a reformulated version MMT can be sustained. I contend that a major difficulty that attends Laudan’s account is his contention that a naturalistic philosophy of science cannot accommodate any a priori justification of methodological rules, and consider what sort of naturalism might best replace Laudan’s. To do this, I discuss Michael Friedman’s account of a relativised a priori and show that it is consistent with naturalistic philosophy of science and that it can help form the basis of a plausible normative naturalism. In particular, this discussion shows that Laudan’s rejection of any a priori justification of methodological rules is unjustified and inconsistent with scientific practice. Finally, I point the way to a version of normative naturalism that includes MMT and accounts for the role of constitutive a priori principles within science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the ethical questions that potentially arise from any interactions with extra-planetary life that outer space explorations might bring about. Recent discoveries of planets in orbit around other stars and publicity surrounding the activities of the international space agencies have revived enthusiasm for planetary exploration. The idea of life on other planets has traditionally been associated with Christian teleology. To the question regarding the basis of an ethic of space exploration, it is possible to respond with skepticism and reject as illusory the ability of humans to develop a code of ethics for interplanetary exploration. One can adopt a skeptical approach to the very idea of an ethic of the space program by invoking the moral-identification thesis. This skeptical approach would be compelling if the moral-identification thesis were cogent. But it suffers from some fundamental problems. This view of morality is as unsatisfactory when applied to the inhabitants of other worlds as it is when applied on Earth. Once established, the moral theory can guide the conduct with non-humans. Moreover, the plausible approach to an ethics of space exploration discussed proceeds by extending conceptions of environmental ethics into the new environments.

Examines arguments for and against structural realism made by John Worrall and Stathis Psillos. Overview of structural realism; Outline of cases for and against structural realism; Re-examination of main scientific example that is the locus of debate for both Worrall and Psillos.

Explores the question of whether or not the resolution of the realism question has any implications for scientific methodology. Discussion on Arthur Fine's attempt to sketch a compromise position between realism and anti-realism; Impact of realism on quantum mechanics.