Social history, especially of bioethics, is bound to be problematic unless it is predicated upon a clear analysis of the substantive ethical issues. At issue in the 1960s was whether research standards should be subjective guidelines, enforced by the researcher's conscience, externally enforced objective rules, or intersubjective standards enforced by review committees (IRBs). In a series of pa...

Ontologies (and Metaphysics) are floating around since Plato and Aristotle. Although these things have often been declared as non-existent, or as outright nonsense and frauds, nevertheless, rigorous, cold-blooded and definite proofs for these unfriendly judgements seem still to be lacking. The adjective sceptical in the title of the present paper is, of course, a polite euphemism. For we can sh...

1. Global scepticism and its refutation In The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, Barry Stroud considers a haunting question: " Could not the external world be completely different from what we perceive it and believe it to be? " (Stroud, 1986: 210). Even the least persuasive sceptical arguments can evoke this doubt. For example, although the conclusion that our perceptual beliefs are in...