Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Theology, Philosophy and Physics -- 2 The Judeo-Christian Contribution to the Development of Modern Science -- 3 The Muslim Centuries -- 4 The Renaissance -- 5 Classical Physics -- 6 Space, Time and Relativity -- 7 Quantum Theory -- 8 Quantum Mechanics -- 9 Deterministic Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics -- 10 Cosmology -- 11 Chaos and Symmetry -- 12 Science and Non-Christian Religions -- 13 Epilogue -- Acknowledgements -- Bibliography (...) -- Name Index -- Subject Index. (shrink)

I adopt a cladistic view of species, and explore the possibility that there exists an equally valuable cladistic view of organismic traits. This suggestion seems to run counter to the stress on functional views of biological traits in recent work in philosophy and psychology. I show how the tension between these two views can be defused with a multilevel view of biological explanation. Despite the attractions of this compromise, I conclude that we must reject it, and adopt an essentially cladistic (...) conception of biological traits. (shrink)

Pv~P: Cambridge Journal of Undergraduate Philosophy, Issue 1, 1982.

The widely cited Nuffield Council on Bioethics ‘Intervention Ladder’ structurally embodies the assumption that personal autonomy is maximized by non-intervention. Consequently, the Intervention Ladder encourages an extreme ‘negative liberty’ view of autonomy. Yet there are several alternative accounts of autonomy that are both arguably superior as accounts of autonomy and better suited to the issues facing public health ethics. We propose to replace the one-sided ladder, which has any intervention coming at a cost to autonomy, with a two-sided ‘Balanced Intervention (...) Ladder,’ where intervention can either enhance or diminish autonomy. We show that not only the alternative, richer accounts of autonomy but even Mill’s classic version of negative liberty puts some interventions on the positive side of the ladder. (shrink)