Evolution has since the publication of The origin of species (1859) been a source of inspiration, and a bone of contention, not only for biology but also for philosophy and the sciences of man. The moral consequences of Darwinism have been a concern for ethicists since Herbert Spencer elevated the survival of the fittest to a norm underwriting cultural and societal progress—hard for the individ...

OBJECTIVES  The principal aim of this study was to demonstrate the maturation of moral reasoning among pharmacy students as they progress through a 4-year degree programme at a school of pharmacy in the UK. METHODS  The moral reasoning of 332 students from across all 4 years of the Master of Pharmacy (M Pharm) degree, together with 13 faculty members, was assessed using Rest's Defining Issues T...

This is a progress report of a project to identify and interview moral exemplars in computing. Initial analyses of the interviews suggests that there are at least two types of moral exemplars, craftspersons (who use the values extant in computing to produce products that help clients) and reformers (who try to change the culture of computing based on external values). We explore the differences...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To explore ethical conflicts in oncology practice and the nature of healthcare contexts in which ethical conflicts can be averted or mitigated. RESEARCH APPROACH Ethnography. SETTING Medical centers and community hospitals with inpatient and outpatient oncology units in southern California and Minnesota. PARTICIPANTS 30 oncology nurses, 6 ethicists, 4 nurse administrato...

INTRODUCTION The requirements of professionalism and the expected qualities of medical staff, including high moral character, motivate institutions to care about the ethical development of students during their medical education. We assessed progress in moral reasoning in a cohort of medical students over the first 3 years of their education. METHODS We invited all 92 medical students enrolle...

Philosophers who studied moral development have found that individuals normally progress rapidly in early adulthood from a conventional stage in which they base behavior on the norms and values of those around them to a more principled stage where they identify and attempt to live by personal moral values. Available data suggest that many medical students, who should be in this transition, show...

Interest in the neural processes underlying decision making has led to a flurry of recent research in the fields of both moral psychology and neuroeconomics. In this paper, we first review some important findings from both disciplines, and then argue that the two fields can mutually benefit each other. A more explicit recognition of the role of values and norms will likely lead to more accurate...

Decades of psychological research have demonstrated that intuitive judgments are often unreliable, thanks to their inflexible reliance on limited information (Kahneman, 2003, 2011). Research on the computational underpinnings of learning, however, indicates that intuitions may be acquired by sophisticated learning mechanisms that are highly sensitive and integrative. With this in mind, Railton ...