| 1. |
- Lindblom, Lars, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating Workplace Inspections
- 2004
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Ingår i: Policy and Practice in Health and Safety. - : Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. - 1477-3996 .- 1477-4003. ; 2:2, s. 77-91
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A theoretical framework is introduced for the evaluation of workplace inspections with respect to their effects on working conditions. The choice of a concept of efficiency is discussed, and its relation to criteria for a good working environment is clarified. It is concluded that in order to obtain reliable information on the effects of different inspection methods, it is necessary to perform controlled comparative studies in which different methods are used on different workplaces. Given the facility with which such studies can be performed, it is surprising how few such studies have been made. The studies that are available provide sufficient evidence that inspections can increase compliance with regulations and that they can also increase workplace safety, but not much can be concluded about the relative efficiency of different inspection methods.
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| 2. |
- Grill, Kalle, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Epistemic Paternalism in Public Health
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Ethics. - London : BMJ. - 0306-6800 .- 1473-4257. ; 31:11, s. 648-653
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Receiving information about threats to one’s health can contribute to anxiety and depression. In contemporary medical ethics there is considerable consensus that patient autonomy, or the patient’s right to know, in most cases outweighs these negative effects of information. Worry about the detrimental effects of information has, however, been voiced in relation to public health more generally. In particular, information about uncertain threats to public health, from—for example, chemicals—are said to entail social costs that have not been given due consideration. This criticism implies a consequentialist argument for withholding such information from the public in their own best interest. In evaluating the argument for this kind of epistemic paternalism, the consequences of making information available must be compared to the consequences of withholding it. Consequences that should be considered include epistemic effects, psychological effects, effects on private decisions, and effects on political decisions. After giving due consideration to the possible uses of uncertain information and rebutting the claims that uncertainties imply small risks and that they are especially prone to entail misunderstandings and anxiety, it is concluded that there is a strong case against withholding of information about uncertain threats to public health.
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| 3. |
- Mebius, Alexander
(författare)
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Philosophical controversies in the evaluation of medical treatments : With a focus on the evidential roles of randomization and mechanisms in Evidence-Based Medicine
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines philosophical controversies surrounding the evaluation of medical treatments, with a focus on the evidential roles of randomised trials and mechanisms in Evidence-Based Medicine. Current 'best practice' usually involves excluding non-randomised trial evidence from systematic reviews in cases where randomised trials are available for inclusion in the reviews. The first paper challenges this practice and evaluates whether adding of evidence from non-randomised trials might improve the quality and precision of some systematic reviews. The second paper compares the alleged methodological benefits of randomised trials over observational studies for investigating treatment benefits. It suggests that claims about the superiority of well-conducted randomised controlled trials over well-conducted observational studies are justified, especially when results from the two methods are contradictory. The third paper argues that postulating the unpredictability paradox in systematic reviews when no detectable empirical differences can be found requires further justification. The fourth paper examines the problem of absence causation in the context of explaining causal mechanisms and argues that a recent solution (Barros 2013) is incomplete and requires further justification. Solving the problem by describing absences as causes of 'mechanism failure' fails to take into account the effects of absences that lead to vacillating levels of mechanism functionality (i.e. differences in effectiveness or efficiency). The fifth paper criticises literature that has emphasised functioning versus 'broken' or 'non-functioning' mechanisms emphasising that many diseases result from increased or decreased mechanism function, rather than complete loss of function. Mechanistic explanations must account for differences in the effectiveness of performed functions, yet current philosophical mechanistic explanations do not achieve this. The last paper argues that the standard of evidence embodied in the ICE theory of technological function (i.e. testimonial evidence and evidence of mechanisms) is too permissive for evaluating whether the proposed functions of medical technologies have been adequately assessed and correctly ascribed. It argues that high-quality evidence from clinical studies is necessary to justify functional ascriptions to health care technologies.
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| 4. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove
(författare)
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Risk assessment
- 2022
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Ingår i: The Routledge Companion to Environmental Ethics. - New York : Informa UK Limited. ; , s. 696-706
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Risk assessments are usually based on expert estimates of probabilities and consequences. The standard methodology has an ethical deficit, since it does not account for important moral issues such as individual rights, intentionality, and distributive justice. A systematic ethical analysis provides a richer and more adequate basis for risk management decisions.
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| 5. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove
(författare)
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The Failure of Luck Anti-Egalitarianism
- 2023
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Ingår i: Risk and Responsibility in Context. - : Informa UK Limited. ; , s. 111-126
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The view that a person deemed responsible for her own disease or injury should be deprived of healthcare resources has obtained considerable support from a philosophical viewpoint known as “luck egalitarianism.” Three basic underlying assumptions are identified, each of which is necessary for this view to be at all credible: that it can be determined whether a person caused her own disease or injury, that blame responsibility can justifiably be assigned to her if she did so, and that this is a sufficient moral reason for withholding treatment that would otherwise have been available to her. This chapter shows that each of these assumptions is untenable. Analysis also makes it clear that the “luck egalitarian” proposals would in practice only affect poor people who would then be largely punished for behaviors into which they have been deceived by the marketing tricks of the tobacco, alcohol, and soft drink industries. Such a policy does not answer to any reasonable definition of egalitarianism. A more suitable term for this standpoint is “luck anti-egalitarianism.”.
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| 6. |
- Lindblom, Lars, 1971-
(författare)
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The Employment Contract between Ethics and Economics
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates what work ought to be like. The answer it presents consists of an outline of a liberaltheory of justice in the employment contract based on theory developed in the area of political philosophy. Thethesis also examines issues of efficiency—How should measures to improve working conditions be evaluated?—and the ethical implications of the economic theory of employment contracts and the neoclassical theory of themarket. Paper I: A theoretical framework is introduced for the evaluation of workplace inspections with respect totheir effects on working conditions. The choice of a concept of efficiency is discussed, and its relation to criteriafor a good working environment is clarified. It is concluded that in order to obtain reliable information onthe effects of different inspection methods, it is necessary to perform controlled comparative studies in whichdifferent methods are used on different workplaces. Paper II: This article outlines the structure of a Rawlsian theory of justice in the employment relationship.The theory answers three questions about justice and the workplace. What is the relationship between socialjustice and justice at work? How should we conceive of the problem of justice within the economic sphere?And, what is justice in the workplace? Reasons for a specific construction of a local original position are givenand arguments are presented in support of a principle of local justice in the form of a choice egalitarian localdifference principle. Paper III: The political philosophy of John Rawls is applied to the moral dilemma of whistleblowing, andit is shown that that the requirement of loyalty, in the sense that is needed to create this dilemma, is inconsistentwith that theory. In a discussion and rejection of Richard De George’s criteria on permissible whistleblowing,it is pointed out that the mere rejection of loyalty will not lead to an extreme position; harms can still be takeninto account. Paper IV: The case is made that if contemporary economics of the employment contract is correct, thenin order to explain the existence of employment contracts, we must make the assumption that the contractingparties are attempting to deal with decisiontheoreticignorance. It follows that the course of action that theemployer chooses to take when acting from authority cannot be justified by consent, since the informednesscriterion of consent cannot be satisfied under ignorance. It is then suggested that in order to achieve justificationof acts of authority, there must be in place a real possibility to contest employers’ decisions. Paper V: According to Ronald Dworkin’s theory of equality of resources, mimicking the ideal market fromequal starting points is fair. According to Dworkin, the ideal market should be understood as described in GérardDebreu’s influential work, which implies that we should conceive of trade as taking place under certainty. Thereare no choices under risk in such a market. Therefore, there is no such thing as option luck in the ideal market.Consequently, when mimicking this market, we cannot hold people responsible for option luck. Mimicking thismarket also implies that we ought to set up a social safety net, since rational individuals with perfect foresightwould see to it that they always have sufficient resources at each point in life. Furthermore, the idea of insuranceis incompatible with the ideal market.
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| 7. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove
(författare)
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Farmers' experiments and scientific methodology
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Journal for Philosophy of Science. - : SPRINGER. - 1879-4912 .- 1879-4920. ; 9:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Farmers all over the world perform experiments, and have done so since long before modern experimental science and its recognized forerunners. There is a rich anthropological literature on these experiments, but the philosophical issues that they give rise to have not received much attention. Based on the anthropological literature, this study investigates methodological and philosophical issues pertaining to farmers' experiments, including the choice of interventions (work methods etc.) to be tested, the planning of experiments, and the use of control fields and other means to deal with confounding factors. Farmers' experiments have some advantages over the field trials of agricultural scientists (more replications, studies performed under the relevant local conditions), but also some comparative disadvantages (less stringent controls, less precise evaluations). The two experimental traditions are complementary, and neither of them can replace the other. Several aspects of farmers' experiments are shown to have a direct bearing on central topics in the philosophy of science.
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| 8. |
- Hansson, Sven Ove
(författare)
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Experiments : Why and How?
- 2016
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Ingår i: Science and Engineering Ethics. - : Springer. - 1353-3452 .- 1471-5546. ; 22:3, s. 613-632
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An experiment, in the standard scientific sense of the term, is a procedure in which some object of study is subjected to interventions (manipulations) that aim at obtaining a predictable outcome or at least predictable aspects of the outcome. The distinction between an experiment and a non-experimental observation is important since they are tailored to different epistemic needs. Experimentation has its origin in pre-scientific technological experiments that were undertaken in order to find the best technological means to achieve chosen ends. Important parts of the methodological arsenal of modern experimental science can be traced back to this pre-scientific, technological tradition. It is claimed that experimentation involves a unique combination of acting and observing, a combination whose unique epistemological properties have not yet been fully clarified.
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| 9. |
- Oakes, Benjamin Donald
(författare)
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Risk Analysis of Intentional Electromagnetic Interference on Critical Infrastructures
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Our modern society depends on the functioning and interplay of a wealth of infrastructures. Practicallyall of these infrastructures are in some form or another, dependent on electrical and electronicsystems. The majority of modern infrastructure is dependent on electric power and controlled bySupervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. Electronic systems are sensitive toelectromagnetic interference and at the same time, sources of electromagnetic interference are becomingmore readily available on the market.This means that certain important electronic infrastructure could be exposed to the risk of intentionalelectromagnetic interference (IEMI). Therefore, and also due to the complex nature of electronicinfrastructure, a comprehensive risk assessment methodology is needed. A game-theoretic approachfor quantitative risk assessment of the recently recognised threat of intentional electromagneticinterference on critical infrastructures is presented. The thesis bridges the gap between thefields of IEMI and risk analysis and lays a foundation for further development within this multidisciplinaryfield.In paper I, the probability distribution function of the electric field strength from a continuouswave source is estimated in complex building structures. Probability distribution functions arecombined for small and large scale fluctuations.In paper II, a structured risk assessment framework is presented for identifying and quantifyingthe risk of IEMI on a distribution network infrastructure. The dimensions and components of riskare dissected and a suitable definition of risk is formulated.In paper III, an operational model is formulated to optimise the operation of a wireless networkunder the course of a coordinated jamming attack. The model captures the time dimension andillustrates how the network operator must dynamically control the network so as to reduce the totalnetwork operational cost.
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| 10. |
- Zhang, Li
(författare)
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On Non-Prioritized Multiple Belief Revision
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates a sort of non-prioritized multiple revision, the operation of making up one's mind, and its generalization, the operation of choice revision. Making up one's mind about a sentence is a belief change that takes the agent to a belief state in which either the sentence or its negation is believed. In choice revision, the input information is represented by a set of sentences, and the agent should make a choice on which sentences to be accepted. Apart from being practically important, these operations are technically interesting since the standard approach of intersecting a set of optimal outcomes is not workable.Paper I provides a construction based on descriptor revision in which the operation of making up one's mind can be modelled in a ``select-direct'' way, which is different from the traditional ``select-and-intersect'' methodology employed in the AGM model. The article shows that this construction is axiomatically characterized with a set of plausible postulates, and investigates the additional postulates that correlate with properties of the construction.Paper II investigates a new modelling for sentential belief revision operations, which is based on a set of relations on sentences named believability relations. It demonstrates that two special kinds of such relations, i.e. H-believability relations and basic believability relations, are faithful alternative models of two typical sentential revision generated from descriptor revision. It also shows that traditional AGM revision operations can be reconstructed from a strengthened variant of the basic believability relation and there exists a close connection between this strengthened believability relation and the standard epistemic entrenchment relation.Paper III studies the constructions of choice revision based on descriptor revision and multiple believability relations, which extends the domain of believability relations from sentences to sets of sentences. It is shown that each of two variants of choice revision based on descriptor revision is axiomatically characterized with a set of plausible postulates, assuming that the object language is finite. Furthermore, without assuming a finite language, it is shown that choice revision constructed from multiple believability relations is axiomatically characterized with the same sets of postulates proposed for choice revision derived from descriptor revision, whenever these relations satisfy certain rationality conditions.Paper IV explores choice revision on belief bases. A generalized version of expansion operation called partial expansion is introduced for developing models of this kind of choice revision. Based on the partial expansion as well as two multiple contraction operations from the literature, two kinds of choice revision operators on belief bases are constructed. This paper proposes several postulates for such two operators and shows that they can be axiomatically characterized by such postulates. Furthermore, it investigates two kinds of making up one's mind operators generated from these two choice revision operators and presents the axiomatic characterizations of them.
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