Misconceived bioethics?: The misconception of the "therapeutic misconception"

Bioethics needs to include study of the social and historical context in which ethical meanings in medical encounters make sense. It needs to do this in order to remain relevant, vibrant, and aware of how it might unwittingly facilitate the agendas of others. As an illustration, this paper critiques some of the accepted meanings and purposes of the idea of the Therapeutic Misconception (TM) which has been an increasingly attractive concept with which to organize thinking about experimentation ethics. By considering the history of alternative viewpoints against which TM was offered as a replacement, this paper suggests that TM, and bioethics more generally, may contribute to increasingly technocratic and standardized practices in medicine.     

Homicide and economic conditions: A replication and critique of M. Harvey Brenner's new report to the U.S. Congress

M. Harvey Brenner has produced two influential studies of the social costs of unemployment, economic inequality, and economic growth, both sponsored by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. This paper reports the results of an effort to reproduce Brenner's findings for homicide from his more recent (1984) study. Our conclusions are as follows. (1) Although not obvious from his write-up, Brenner's 1984 results differ substantively from his earlier results. (2) We are unable to reproduce his reported findings. (3) There are serious methodological problems with his procedure for choosing a regression specification.     

Assessing bias in professional licensing examinations by checking internal consistency

Law and Human Behavior - There are serious difficulties in using standard psychometric techniques for validating professional licensing examinations such as medical and bar examinations against...     

Heir pollution: A note on Buchanan's ‘laws of succession’ and tullock's ‘blind spot’

But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 26.)     

A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Gary Goertz Department of Political Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 e-mail: ggoertz{at}u.arizona.edu The quantitative and qualitative research traditions can bethought of as distinct cultures marked by different values,beliefs, and norms. In this essay, we adopt this metaphor towardthe end of contrasting these research traditions across 10 areas:(1) approaches to explanation, (2) conceptions of causation,(3) multivariate explanations, (4) equifinality, (5) scope andcausal generalization, (6) case selection, (7) weighting observations,(8) substantively important cases, (9) lack of fit, and (10)concepts and measurement. We suggest that an appreciation ofthe alternative assumptions and goals of the traditions canhelp scholars avoid misunderstandings and contribute to moreproductive "cross-cultural" communication in political science.