Astrobiology is a scientific discipline that studies life in the Universe. We call it a discipline and not a science because some authors have cast doubts over its epistemological status by calling it “a science without an object of study”. As with astrophysics, the scientific nature of astrobiology is related to historical-narrative sciences and nomothetic sciences. This discipline also integr...

This work analyzes the sanitary question in the modernity-postmodernity debate. Such analyses are performed form a philosophical position that states the crisis of Modernity and questions the ideological twist that to itself propitiates postmodernity, shutting out questioning views or visions. It propitiates an alternative view of politics, thinking of it from the potency plane and giving a rol...

Medical apps have featured in popular websites and mainstream news media in recent months. However, there has been almost no mention of these tools in journals focusing on relevant ethical or social issues, including conflict of interest, the role of politics in science, and technological oversight. This essay examines the role that these philosophical issues might play in answering both public...

This paper presents the case for using the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence and a derivative of it, to model the reasoning process in debates on difficult philosophical, theological and scientific questions. This gives a useful formal framework within which to enhance the debating process. A well-known theological debate and two scientific exemplars are given for illustration of the working a...

Pervasiveness and ubiquity opens the possibility for human race to go beyond time and geographic limitations. The new possibility of virtual existence has important social and psychological impact. For example, identity was normally associated to the notion of unique. Yet, virtual communities make it possible for people to have several identities (i.e., different nick names) but also different ...

Markedly effeminate behavior in a young boy is a source of concern and confusion for parents, teachers, and the child. It also represents a therapeutic dilemma for the child psychiatrist. The case of a five-year-old boy with gender identity disorder of childhood is presented and the literature on hypotheses of etiology, treatment, and long-term follow-up is reviewed. The ethical and philosophic...

Bioethics and biolaw are two philosophical approaches that address social tension and conflict caused by emerging bioscientific and biomedical research and application. Both reflect their respective, yet different, heritages in Western law. Bioethics can be defined as "the research and practice, generally interdisciplinary in nature, which aims to clarify or resolve ethical questions raised by ...

Through a discussion of a range of research drawn from the humanities and social sciences, and with a particular emphasis on work that tackles questions about the discourse of the life sciences, this paper considers some of the difficulties with research that aims to offer a critical analysis of immunology and its relationship to culture. It considers in particular arguments made on behalf of a...

This paper is primarily targeted at doctoral students and other researchers considering using inductive approach as a research strategy. We present interpretive research designed to explore the interaction strategies between analysts and clients/users during requirements determination process and the factors that may be at work in such interaction. Using inductive approach can be treated as bot...

The rise of experimental philosophy (x-phi) has placed metaphilosophical questions, particularly those concerning concepts, at the center of philosophical attention. X-phi offers empirically rigorous methods for identifying conceptual content, but what exactly it contributes towards evaluating conceptual content remains unclear. We show how x-phi complements Rudolf Carnap's underappreciated met...