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to the fact that humans and their nonhuman models have taken divergent evolutionary trajectories, and are thus not qualitatively identical systems (once compensation has been made for purely quantitative differences in body weight, for example). Put bluntly, the prediction problem boils down to this: if mice are not men writ small, under what conditions do we expect experimental results on mice to have informational value for human biomedical phenomena? Two of Shanks' essays have generated some interest in this puzzle.
375:. In the course of his explorations of the implications of the study of animals for the modern scientific view of the world, Shanks has explored the issue of animal consciousness and the question as to what, if anything, science can teach us about the mental lives of animals. Shanks has argued that there is no straightforward fact of the matter to settle disputes between those who have a very generous view of the mental lives of animals (for example, in some versions of
323:, and the problem of the construction of classical models (models exhibiting the properties of determinateness and determinism) for quantum measurement statistics. Shanks argued that the various no-hidden-variables proofs rested on questionable assumptions which a classical modeller could plausibly deny. Shanks would later argue that local deterministic models were indeed possible for the puzzling quantum spin correlation statistics that were used to characterise
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363:. He has argued that animal experimentation provided a crucial driving force behind the method of analysis and synthesis that would come to play a central role in the emergence of the physico-chemical sciences in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to Shanks, the development of modern science flows from
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to explore human biomedical phenomena by performing experiments on nonhuman animals and then extrapolating the results to humans (animals play many roles in biomedical research, but one important role is as predictors of human biomedical phenomena). Shanks claims that a prediction problem exists due
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Shanks' early research interests were focused on issues in the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. He later wrote about the case against
Intelligent Design and actively defended evolution. Beginning in the 1990s he explored the implications of evolutionary biology for biomedical research
371:, and not the reverse as is commonly supposed. Physics would ultimately come to have profound implications for physiology, and these matters are explored by Shanks in his work on the writings of the great 19th century French physiologist,
387:). Shanks has argued that disputes about these matters hinge not on appeals to the facts, but rather on disputes about what the relevant facts are, and where these disputes do not themselves admit of a straightforward factual resolution.
467:. It is now generally recognised that the implications evolutionary biology for medicine must be taken into account if modern medical inquiry is to be placed on a sound theoretical foundation. The great population geneticist
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and was actively involved in this until his death. Shanks was also interested in the history of medicine and the role played by medicine in the scientific revolutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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335:, 1993, vol. 43, 170:20–37) summarises his arguments in an accessible manner. At this point in time, working with W. David Sharp, Shanks examined some puzzles concerning
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that counterfactual interpretations of quantum spin measurements could not be reconciled with the validated predictions of quantum mechanics.
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275:, Canada in 1987. Shanks moved to the United States in 1987. For a number of years Shanks was a member of the Department of Philosophy at
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is rooted in bad science, bad theology and a radical right-wing social agenda. His views may be found in his book,
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In addition, Shanks has written over fifty scholarly articles and is also the author of numerous book reviews.
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that states a
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See W.D. Sharp and N. Shanks, 1993, "The Rise and Fall of Time-Symmetrized
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Shanks made contributions to debates on topics in what may be broadly characterised as
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where he was the Curtis D. Gridley
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in biomedical research. It has become common scientific practice in research in
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in a purely naturalistic account of biological and cosmological phenomena.
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Prominent defender of evolution joins
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God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of
Intelligent Design Theory
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nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution
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See "Evolution and
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personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay
331:). Shanks' essay, "Quantum Mechanics and Determinism" (
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English philosopher and critic of intelligent design
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339:of quantum mechanics. This work culminated in the
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524:Animals and Science: A Guide to the Debates
514:, N. Shanks (Ed.). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998.
403:(and its recent incarnation in the form of
315:Shanks early work was focused on so-called
55:Learn how and when to remove these messages
532:. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
431:. Shanks is an advocate of methodological
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536:Animal Models in the Light of Evolution
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