Week 1 - Intro to biological basis of behaviour

Question 1

What is peer review and what is it used for in science?

Answer 1

• To obtain funding for research in the form of grants, scientists must write grant proposals
• These grant proposals are sent out to other scientists and are subject to peer review
• Peer review is a process whereby scientists judge each others work and then offer feedback and make comments
• A panel at the funding agency will then analyse this feedback and decide whether the grant should be given
• Peer review is also used prior to the report being published as a journal

Question 2

In what ways is the impact of scientific work measured?

Answer 2

• Impact refers to how one article affects other scientists or the public
• Citation impact is also used for hiring and promotion decisions - it refers to the number of times the paper has been referenced by other works from other scientists and researchers

Question 3

What are some obvious unethical behaviours in doing science? What are more subtle ethical considerations?

Answer 3

• Some obvious unethical behaviours include:
  1. Making up data to report
  2. Stealing someone else’s ideas for a grant proposal
  3. Stealing someone else’s data to report
  4. Submitting something other authors wrote
• Some ethical behaviours include:
  1. Reporting observed data
  2. Propose one’s own ideas in proposals
  3. Report one’s own data
  4. Write one’s own paper

Question 4

What is wild justice?

Answer 4

Wild justice refers to what animals believe is right or wrong in the ways in which they interact with one another

Question 5

What is the distinction between moral agency and moral concern?

Answer 5

• Moral agency refers to the question of which animals have some moral sense, or sense of justice
• Moral concern revolves around the question of which animals deserve our ethical consideration, then what the nature of consideration should be

Question 6

What are some philosophical answers to criteria that make an entity deserving of moral concern?

Answer 6

• Two criteria have been considered reasonable for drawing the moral circle:
  1. Sentience - conscious sensation, phenomenal appearance of sensation
  2. Awareness of what matters - an animal would rather have matters one way than another

Question 7

What is utilitarianism, a stand that the scientific community generally takes?

Answer 7

• Utilitarianism occurs when value theory is combined with the theory of right action
• Value theory says that the only thing thats valuable alone is happiness
• The value of right action produces the most of whats valuable or the expected maximised value