Resources

Material on Paradigms 

These serve as more background for those interested in the topics in the book.

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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. By Thomas Kuhn. Pick an edition beyond the first and you cannot go wrong. He started all of this stuff using the term “paradigm.” His focus is on scientific paradigms. In hindsight he recognized that he used the term in a variety of ways. He settled on the puzzle-solving nature of scientific activity. Scientists solve puzzles within their particular field. When they can’t all hell breaks loose, and the paradigm shifts so the puzzle can be solved. These amount to revolutions in science where the new paradigm cannot be compared to the old paradigm. A bit of sticky issue if you think science is always progressing. You have lost all basis of comparison. All you can say is that it changes.

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. By Lakatos and Musgrave. This collection provides an alternative view about scientific development. 

Behavioral Economics: Towards a New Paradigm. By Etzioni. This paper outlines the shift in economics theory to behavioral economics from neoclassical theory. This shift plays a central theme in The Paradigm Lens.

Material on Bioethics

Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Beauchamp and Childress. A mainstay for teaching ethics courses. Uses a principles approach instead of ethical theory. Gets you into the specifics more readily. For those wishing a more solid grounding you have to read other texts.

Dax Cowart Compilation. Vmeo 2016. https://vimeo.com/164747904. A series of videos that give a vivid depiction of an important case in informed consent. It can be disturbing at times. I used portions of this when I taught because it stirs all sorts of emotions about the reality of the cases we use to study informed consent.

Good Ethics Bad Choices: The Relevance of Behavioral Economics for Medical Ethics. By Blumenthal-Barby. A recent addition to the literature. It bridges two (at least two) disciplines and is well thought out. I am partial to this approach. My book bridges across multiple disciplines and it always gives me a fresh perspective.

Material on Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. By Ariely. A fascinating book by one of the leaders in the field. Since how we really think is important, this book and others points to how we deviate from an idealized form of thought. He has a broad presence on social media and the web in general. Lots of fun to follow.

Thinking Fast and Slow. By Kahneman. One of the founders of making decisions under uncertainty, this book sums up a boat load of experiments in behavioral economics by this Nobel Prize winner. You can also look up publications from him with his long standing research partner Tversky.

Gut Feelings: Short Cuts to Better Decision Making. By Gigerenzer. Takes a different approach to rational decision making under uncertainty than most in the behavioral economics community. 

Reasons and Persons. By Parfit. A philosophical treatise on what it means to be rational and ethical. Tough sledding open with caution.

Material on Ethics

An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. By Bentham. A fairly easy to follow philosophical approach to how we should make choices. It is the foundation of utilitarian theories in ethics. Do what is best even if it isn’t fair. Sometimes the end justifies the means.

 Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. By Kant. Anything by Kant other than his lectures is a bit of a slog but this view gives you the end does not justify the means and we should always be fair.

An Introduction to Ethics. By Deigh. There are numerous introductory books available that explain these foundations. This is one of the better ones. There are many other ethical theories rooted in religion as well as social theory. There are feminist views, Marxist, and various religions weigh in.