Defending Biomedical Authority and Regulating the Womb as Social Space

Defending Longino's Social Epistemology

Though critics of traditional epistemology agree that we need to account for the role that social factors play in inquiry, developing a viable social epistemology has proved to be difficult. According to Helen Longino, it is the processes that make inquiry possible that are social, for they require a number of people to sustain them. These processes facilitate inquiry, and ensure that the resul...

Doctors in space (ships): biomedical uncertainties and medical authority in imagined futures

There has been considerable interest in images of medicine in popular science fiction and in representations of doctors in television fiction. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to doctors administering space medicine in science fiction. This article redresses this gap. We analyse the evolving figure of 'the doctor' in different popular science fiction television series. Building upon ...

Defending the Nation through Excellence in Space :

Defending 'the four principles' approach to biomedical ethics.

Authority, Social Theories Of

Authority is best defined as a relation that exists between individuals. A relation of authority exists when one individual, prompted by his or her circumstances, does as indicated by another individual what he or she would not do in the absence of such indication. This I will refer to as the authority relation. The legitimacy of an authority relation is what keeps the relationship from breakin...