We examine the role of professional jurisdiction in the convergence of science and business by exploring the relationship between professional jurisdiction and ethical decision-making. We apply the concept of professional jurisdiction (Abbott 1988) to the turf wars over vertebrate fossils among professional fossil collectors, vertebrate paleontologists, and the professional associations. We posit a series of hypotheses relating to how perceptions of professional jurisdiction influence stakeholders’ ethical decision-making frameworks concerning the sale and purchase of vertebrate fossils, as well as how (...) professional paleontologists who work with vertebrate fossils and other stakeholders differ in ethical decision-making if vertebrate fossils are perceived inside or outside of their professional jurisdiction. We develop a time-line of jurisdiction battles over vertebrate fossils and a model of the influence of professional jurisdiction perceptions on ethical decision-making. We propose a methodology for examining ethical decision-making using the Multidimensional Ethics Survey (MES). (shrink)

The paper „F. W. Bessel and Russian science by K. K. Lavrinovich published in NTM-Schriftenreihe contains several errors coming mainly from re-translations of German names and texts from Russian into German. The correct spelling of names and original texts are given here. Beside this, some additional information from sources not mentioned by the author is presented, and the kind of relationship between Bessel and W. Struve is discussed on the basis of their correspondence.

A non-epistemological history of historical epistemology Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9501-5 Authors W. R. Albury, School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. The Moral Life by W. R. Sorley was first published in 1911 and reissued as this third edition in 1920. The volume presents an account of the nature of goodness in (...) humanity, taking the perspective that morality is a spirit manifested in life rather than a body of rules. (shrink)

Eric Olsen argues from the fact that we once existed as fetal individuals to the conclusion that the Standard View of personal identity is mistaken. I shall establish that a similar argument focusing upon dead people opposes Olson’s favored Biological View of personal identity.

Age-specific mortality rates have been used to illustrate certain aspects of the characteristics of old age. A consideration of the experience of the ageing person in his fifties and early sixties suggests that during this period he comes to recognize death as being an increasingly common characteristic of his age group. Thus the standard procedure for studying old age problems in a sample of people over the age of 65 may miss the period of life when people are making the (...) crucial adjustments to old age and may give a distorted view of some gerontological problems. Certain demographic aspects of old age are considered in detail with regard to the occurrence of, first, widowhood and, second, social isolation. (shrink)

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.