It may be naïve to hope for better, but the world cannot afford sly pandering to lying propaganda. Failures of epistemic integrity have real practical consequences, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the middle east. Consider this: ‘I…

The outrage provoked by Professor Anthony Mathur’s suggestion that patients should sometimes be obliged to enrol in clinical trials (discussed already on this blog by Steve Clarke: 11 December) continues to rage on.  Armies of shrill …

Part 1 Part 2     Now we move on to virtue in the conduct of enquiry. honest dealing in the conduct of enquiry There is some evidence giving cause for concern ·        There is evidence …

By: David Edmonds The current British inquiry into the Iraq war – led by Sir John Chilcot – is a cathartic exercise.  No issue since New Labour was elected in 1997 has been so divisive.   The war split friends, families an…

As promised at the end of part 1 (here ), I shall now run over the evidence for the failings of epistemic character among climate scientists. I shall be breaking this up into loosely related groups: objectivity, the conduct of enquiry, what…

In a recent article on the BBC News website Professor Anthony Mathur, Head of Advanced Cardiac Imaging at Barts and the NHS Trust, argues that cardiac patients should be obliged to take part in medical research (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/…

Two recent articles highlight the powerful influence that language has over the way people think. Word choice is at the centre of an article about USA ‘abortionist’ Warren Hern . He hates the word abortionist: ‘the opponents of aborti…

In a urology journal this month American surgeons describe transplanting kidneys that would previously have been rejected as unsuitable. In each case the donor kidneys had been found to contain a solitary mass during the transplant work-up …

The Copenhagen climate change summit begins today, and will run for two weeks: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/copenhagen . The aim of this UN meeting is to establish agreements to succeed the Kyoto protocol, in the hope ultimately of…

I would like to try and throw additional light on the motives that led a majority of Swiss voters to a surprise acceptance, on November 29, of an initiative forbidding the construction of future minarets – already commented on by Russell Po…