Methodological Considerations about the Ethical and Social Implications of Protocells
Methodological Considerations about the Ethical and Social Implications of Protocells
This chapter addresses methodological preliminaries in order to influence the logically and rhetorically correct argumentative framework. It specifically explores the strategies along which the debate could move: the by-analogy strategy, the ontological strategy, and the type-token strategy. It turns to the major arguments that can be used. It also highlights the roles and responsibilities of the scientific community, proposing a sort of international agency that should monitor and prepare analyses of what is occurring. This chapter shows that the transcendence argument against the actions of creating and using protocells is a false belief. It also suggests that the slippery slope argument is either fallacious or very weak, and therefore useless against protocells.
Keywords: by-analogy strategy, ontological strategy, type-token strategy, transcendence argument, protocells, slippery slope argument, methodological preliminaries
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