Leemon McHenry

Leemon McHenry (b. 1956), is a bioethicist and a lecturer in philosophy at California State University, Northridge, in the United States. He has taught philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, Old Dominion University, Davidson College, Central Michigan University, Wittenberg University and Loyola Marymount University and has held visiting research positions at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests center on medical ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of science.

Education

McHenry received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, where he was Vans Dunlop Scholar in Logic and Metaphysics studying with Professor Timothy L. S. Sprigge.

Writings

Much of his philosophical work focuses on the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and process studies. He has devoted attention to Whitehead's attempt to construct a unified general theory from the revolutionary developments in modern physics. McHenry has argued that Whitehead's event ontology is a more adequate basis for achieving this unification than a traditional substance metaphysics of thinkers such as Aristotle.

In medical ethics he has focused attention on the interplay between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. He has criticized the corporate take over of medicine and the corrupting influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medicine. This includes dubious claims about chemical imbalance as a marketing ploy for selling antidepressants, industry-sponsored clinical research, ghostwriting for medical journals and direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals.

McHenry has edited several books, authored chapters of numerous academic texts, served as the philosophy review editor for "Process Studies" (ISBN 0791455734), and participated in the State University of New York's series in philosophy, which brings together the world’s leading contemporary process and analytic philosophers. He has written articles and reviews for "Process Studies", "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy", "The Journal of Medical Ethics","The Review of Metaphysics", "Mind", and "The American Rationalist".

Publications

* 1992, "Whitehead and Bradley: A Comparative Analysis", SUNY Series in Systematic Philosophy, Albany: State University of New York Press.
* 1996, "Descriptive and Revisionary Theories of Events", "Process Studies", 25, p. 90-103
* 2002, "British Philosophers: 1800-2000", ed. with P. Dematteis and P. Fosl, London and Detroit: Gale.
* 2002, "American Philosophers to 1950", ed. with P. Dematteis, London and Detroit: Gale.
* 2003, "Reflections on Philosophy: Introductory Essays", ed. with T. Yagisawa, New York: Longman.
* 2005, "On the Origin of Great Ideas: Science in the Age of Big Pharma," "Hastings Center Report", vol 35, no 6, p 17-19
* 2006, "Ethical Issues in Psychopharmacology", "Journal of Medical Ethics" vol 32, p 405-410
* 2007, "Maxwell's Field and Whitehead's Events: The Adventure of a Revolutionary Idea" in "Subjectivity, Process, and Rationality" edited by M. Weber and P. Basile, Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag.
*2007, "Commercial Influences on the Pursuit of Wisdom," "London Review of Education", vol. 5, no 2, p. 131-142
*2008, "Clinical Trials and Drug Promotion: Selective Reporting of Study 329," with Jon N. Jureidini and Peter R. Mansfield, "International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine", vol. 20, pp. 73-81
*2008, "Industry-Sponsored Ghostwriting in Clinical Reporting: A Case Study," with Jon N. Jureidini, "Accountability in Research", vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 152-167

External links

* [http://www.csun.edu/~lmchenry/ CSUN.edu] - Leemon McHenry's CSUN faculty homepage
* [http://www.anthonyflood.com/fordwhiteheadbradley.htm AnthonyFlood.com] - 'A review of Leemon McHenry, Whitehead and Bradley: A Comparative Analysis', Lewis S. Ford