Biomedical subjects

Peter Lipton

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Lipton.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

The Medawar Lecture 2004 the truth about science.

The attitudes of scientists towards the philosophy of science is mixed and includes considerable indifference and some hostility. This may be due in part to unrealistic expectation and to misunderstanding. Philosophy is unlikely directly to improve scientific practices, but scientists may find the attempt to explain how science works and what it achieves of considerable interest nevertheless. The present state of the philosophy of science is illustrated by recent work on the 'truth hypothesis', according to which, science is generating increasingly accurate representations of a mind-independent and largely unobservable world. According to Karl Popper, although truth is the aim of science, it is impossible to justify the truth hypothesis. According to Thomas Kuhn, the truth hypothesis is false, because scientists can only describe a world that is partially constituted by their own theories and hence not mind-independent. The failure of past scientific theories has been used to argue against the truth hypothesis; the success of the best current theories has been used to argue for it. Neither argument is sound.

Knowledge↗

PubMed2005

Testing hypotheses: prediction and prejudice.

Observations that fit a hypothesis may be made before or after the hypothesis is formulated. Can that difference be relevant to the amount of support that the observations provide for the hypothesis? Philosophers of science and statisticians are both divided on this question, but there is an argument that predictions ought to count more than accommodations, because of the risk of "fudging" that accommodations run and predictions avoid.

Empirical Research↗

PubMed2004

Pharmacogenetics: ethical problems and solutions.

Regulators, drug companies, academic scientists, bioethicists, clinicians and, increasingly, the general public are starting to realize that pharmacogenetics (PGx) will probably have a huge impact on the way in which we treat both common and rare diseases. But how much thought has gone into the ethical issues that the incorportation of phamacogenetic testing into drug discovery, prescription and use will entail? It seems that "quite a bit" is the answer, as the diverse viewpoints of representatives of all of these groups presented here illustrate. However, these views also highlight that now is the time to start formulating and implementing solutions to these potential problems.

Ethics, Medical↗

PubMed2003

Nuffield Council on Bioethics consultation.

The possibility of using genetic analysis to predict response to medicines has led some to make the optimistic claim that personalized medicine--"the right medicine, for the right patient, at the right dose"--will only be a matter of time. Indeed, pharmacogenetic tests could be one of the earliest practical applications that information from the Human Genome Project will have on our lives. Many patients experience side effects from medicines, and the use of pharmacogenetics in the drug discovery process has the potential to improve efficacy and safety of some treatments. However, both the research and the clinical applications raise ethical, legal, social and regulatory issues that need to be addressed before targeted prescription becomes reality. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has established a Working Party to consider these issues and has recently issued a consultation document on the subject.

Bioethics↗