Philosophy books are expensive. Never fear: Librivox has loads of free audiobooks. The search is not the most efficient I’ve seen, but there’s definitely some Kant and some Mill (and some HP Lovecraft) on there, so it’s hard to complain. (Though I’m kind of in agreement with Brian Leiter when he comments that “Of course, […]
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Rude Awakenings
Doubtless, everyone in the world has by now heard the story of the “sleeping Belgian”: Rom Houben was believed to have been in a coma for 23 years, but was actually fully conscious for all that time. If the reports are to be believed, it would have potentially serious implications for the way we think […]
Nursing by Degree
A couple of weeks ago, the government announced that, from 2013, all nursing staff would have to be graduates. “Degree-level education,” said Health Minister for England Ann Keen, will provide new nurses with the decision-making skills they need to make high-level judgements in the transformed NHS. I’m not so sure of this. […]
Conference report: Conscientious Objection Workshop
By David Hunter On the 23rd of October I attended a workshop at Keele University (where I am based) focused on the topic of Conscientious Objection. This is a topic which I have some interest in (in 2001 I wrote a short dissertation on the topic within the context of euthanasia) however this workshop interestingly […]
Does Medicine – and Medical Ethics – have a Pro-Life Bias?
There’s an essay by Diego Gracia called “Palliative Care and the Historical Background” that I frequently use in classes about Care ethics, and there’s a passage in it that always gets a fascinating reaction from students. In this passage, Gracia claims that the true goal of medicine has always been curing, rather than taking care of […]
Knowing the Enemy in the “War on Drugs”
If you’re going to fight a war, you need to know whom you’re fighting. You also could do with knowing when to stop fighting. Johann Hari is eloquent in this piece on the so-called “war on drugs”: the time to stop is now. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the […]
“Ethics” and PEA Soup to Link
Reproduced from the PEA Soup blog: We are very pleased to announce a new partnership between PEA Soup and the distinguished journal, Ethics. In addition to our regular postings, PEA Soup’s editors will select one article from each issue of Ethics to be the focus of a featured discussion on our blog. Ethics, in turn, will make an on-line […]
David Nutt Speaks
Damn. I thought I’d published this a couple of weeks ago. Anyway… David Nutt tells his side of the cannabis sacking story in The Guardian, based on a longer piece here. A sample – or, if you will, a ‘teenth: What we can say is that cannabis use is associated with an increased experience of […]
Progress in Medicine Conference
Bristol, 13-15 April. The aims of this conference are: To examine the nature, scope, causes, and grounds of progress in medicine. To provide a forum for developing the unified study of the history and philosophy of medicine, and in particular raising the profile of the philosophy of medicine in the UK and its engagement with […]
When the Witch Asks a Question, I Can’t Resist
In the replies to this thread, The Witch Doctor asks this: A Scenario: Apparently there are some sites on the web just now claiming that the world is going to end in 2012. Some teenagers are becoming agitated. I don’t want to be around when the world ends, so I’m going to drink some poison […]