One man's struggle against impermanence
John Wilkins is an aged, eternal student, who thinks philosophy of biology is at least as interesting as politics or sport and twice as important. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland, in Australia. After a varied career, involving factories, gardening, civil service, publishing, graphics, public relations but not, unfortunately for the CV, driving a truck, John finally completed his thesis on species concepts, which he is working into two books. One has been accepted for publication, and will come out in 2008; the other may be contracted soon. He is also interested in cultural evolution, philosophy of religion, Macintosh computers and his kids (they sort of make it a necessity, you know?).
If anyone knows of a tenurable, or even medium term, job in philosophy of biology, let me know. Have library, will travel. The contract runs out soon...
This blog is designed to host any random thoughts that happen to be passing through my forebrain at a given moment. So there will be errors...
Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion
Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine)
Foundations of Systematics and Biogeography
Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality
Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition Series)
My personal page is here:
The previous instantiation of this blog is accessible here.
January 31, 2007
Category: Administrative
Start of School Year for Son.... Reading this: "Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology" (Massimo Pigliucci, Jonathan Kaplan) and this: "Darwinian Reductionism: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology" (Alex Rosenberg) Do likewise...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 7:54 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2007
Category: General Science
As a chronic insomniac (and consequently incoherent raver - the mutterings at the end of the Beatle's "I'm so tired" represent my daily conversation), I am very interested to read of a possible drug that targets a hormone family called "orexins", low levels of which are found in narcoleptics.... Some of you neurologically and pharmacologically educated bloggers: read and expound on this please!
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 2:10 AM • 1 Comments •
January 27, 2007
Category: Humor
If I had a category for "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?" this would be in it. The Sciblings are doing it, so I must. I am:Gregory BenfordA master literary stylist who is also a working...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:32 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Sure, everyone made the CoE noises, except for the few non-Christians (mostly Jews) who found their way into public office, but basically, the place of religion was defined by the nasty role of Catholic "intellectuals" who tried to force Australian mores into their own mold back in the 1930s through to the 1950s.... Beginning with the present government (conservative, oddly known as the Liberal Party), and the past leader of the opposition (social democrat, oddly known as Labor), both sides have been asserting their religious credentials.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 10:37 AM • 0 Comments •
January 24, 2007
Category: Administrative
Tetrapod Zoology, which has been one of my favourite blogs for some time now, has finally moved into Da House! It will get fine tuned, as things go on, I'm sure, but the look and feel are secondary to the wonderful content.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:50 PM • 2 Comments •
January 23, 2007
Category: Basic Concepts
First of all I'd like to disagree with the entire way the debate has been framed over the past 150 years or so and state this: There is only one species concept. That is to say, there is only one concept that we are all trying to define in many ways, according to both our preferred theories of how species come into being and maintain themselves over evolutionary time, and what happens to be the general case for the group of organisms we have in our minds when we attempt our definitions.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:58 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History
Linneaus put out at least 13 editions of this in his lifetime, and the famous 10th edition was adopted in the 19th century as the "gold standard" - if Linnaeus named a species, that was its name thereafter, and if not, then the first person to name it after the 10th edition, published in 1758, got the credit. In the course of the work, and other books such as the Fundamenta Botanica, Linnaeus defined species as "There are as many species as the Infinite Being produced diverse forms in the beginning."
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 10:43 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2007
Category: Creationism
PEER have added some clarification over their pre-Christmas release about creationist literature at the NPS bookshops at the Grand Canyon. I interpreted it this way, but their loose wording caused a furor about NPS staff not being able to give the age of the GC.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General Science
Darren Naish has announced, sort of, forthcoming evolutionary changes to his blog. Stay tuned for more information...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Basic Concepts
Fitness. Of the many concepts of evolution, this is perhaps one of the more widely misunderstood.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:12 AM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2007
Category: General Science
It's nice to see the author has read and understood Hull's point that most science is not progressive, and that we have only got the basis for believing science progresses if we ignore the bulk of science which dies stillborn and is never heard of again.... So long as we ignore the bulk of philosophy, which plays word salad football, or which clings to older metaphysics out of religious commitment and a need for the security of tradition, we can say philosophy has progressed.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 11:20 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Humor
In an inadvertently, or perhaps deliberately, funny abstract, D. Osorio notes that there's a role for spam in insect evolution. Spam and the evolution of the fly's eye. Osorio D. School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG,...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:30 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2007
Category: Philosophy of Science
Two ideal characters, whom I shall call Atheist and Theist, are debating before an audience of ideal agnostics --and now we understand by this term agnostics of the common-or-garden variety, people who neither believe that God exists nor believe that God does not exist.... Actually, they are the vector sum of all the weightings of the audience combined, since I'm not a Platonist and don't think logic or any abstract object exists independently of cognition, but let's assume that if auditor Alice shifts her weightings towards (improbableX), that doesn't force either the ensemble to shift much or any other member of the audience to shift in the same direction.
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:48 AM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 16, 2007
Category: Basic Concepts
A couple more Basic Concepts posts have been put up. Chaz Orzel at Uncertain Principles defines "Force" in physics. And PZ Myers at Pharyngula defines "Gene". However, PZ does this as a molecular biologist would, and ignores the phenotypic effects...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 11:09 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General Science
Not to be too self-promoting, but I have an essay in the Science Blog Anthology, which you can purchase here. There's one or two other essays worth reading as well. Go check it out....
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:41 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 15, 2007
Category: Basic Concepts
Mark Chu-Carroll has a good short discussion of the statistical concept of a "normal distribution" up....
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:23 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
Ian McCulloch, lead singer for Echo and the Bunnymen has a "Credo" in the Independent Online, in which he delivers himself of this constipated turd: I believe in anti-Darwinism - otherwise why are there still monkeys? Anyone who thinks Darwinism...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:13 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 13, 2007
Category: Humor
I just loved the first Sony Bravia TV ad, with the balls bouncing down San Francisco streets, but the second one, with paint "fireworks" is spectacular. Below the fold is the ad and a link to "the making of"....
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 11:36 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Basic Concepts
Larry Moran has a Basic Concepts post on Evolution. It's not quite what I'd have written, but it's good anyway. Even if he isn't sufficiently selectionist and gene-centric......
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:06 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 12, 2007
Category: Basic Concepts
This is the first in an irregular series of basic concepts in science, that I suggested to the Seed Bloggers we might do from time to time. If anyone wants to suggest a revision, because I got it wrong...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 10:38 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Quick... what was Darwin's most popular book? If you answered The Origin of Species, you were wrong. It was his last book, published the year before he died, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms With...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 4:24 AM • 7 Comments •
Category: Evolution
One of the more famous events in the development of evolutionary biology was the shift from the linear notion of horse evolution proposed by E. D. Cope O. C. Marsh and T. H. Huxley in the 19th century to...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:54 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
Nobody ever tags me......
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:37 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 11, 2007
Category: Politics
Sheik al-Hilaly has again made comments about Australians and their way of life. We're dishonest, unjust, and there is no freedom or democracy here. Oddly, this is something he is entitled to say in Australia. Let him try to make...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 11:33 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
NASA Watch reports that Patrick Rhode, the deputy to Michael Brown, of Hurricane Katrina FEMA infamy, has been appointed to a NASA position. His total lack of experience at anything except getting Bush and Cheney elected makes this a very...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:35 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 9, 2007
Category: Logic and philosophy
I hope the Austin American-Statesman doesn't mind me reproducing this obituary to one of the University of Texas' favourite sons......
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 8:14 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 5, 2007
Category: Administrative
Well, I got another paper revised and out the door a couple of hours ago (it started life as a series of blog posts on microbial species here), so I am feeling almost lightheaded. But I have one other paper...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 5:43 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Courtesy of Thoughts from Kansas comes a link to this site where a short test using the standard diagnostic criteria for psychopathy allows you to decide if Bush is a psychopath. My own assessment gave him 38/40, which is well...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 12:40 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 4, 2007
Category: Creationism
PEER, a website devoted to promoting environmental responsibility by public institutions, notes that three years after promising to review the literature on display at the Grand Canyon National Park after creationist literature was on offer, nothing has happened. In fact,...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 8:31 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 3, 2007
Category: Logic and philosophy
A well-known philosopher of the emotions, Hegel, and existentialism, Bob Solomon died yesterday. He was only 59. He was instrumental in setting up the International Society for Research on Emotions (ISRE). I met Bob when he came out to our...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 11:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Philosophy of Science
In addition to the wonderful Darwin's Writings on the Web site, there's also a Lamarck on the Web, an Alfred Russel Wallace site, and a Buffon site. Put your favourite historical biology sites in the comments, and I'll assemble a...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:59 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 2, 2007
Category: Humor
Hat tip: Pharyngula...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 9:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
In yet another attempt to Catholicise the Australian options on health, Minister Tony Abbott, a Catholic, continues his reckless quest by assigning to the Catholic Church in Australia a contract to provide pregnancy counselling services. This is in part because...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 7:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Mark Vernon, at the Guardian's blog site, asks what would happen to theology if Corot finds evidence of inhabited planets (which it won't, because it's not set up for that). He raises the traditional theological concerns, made popular in C....
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 7:02 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
I was watching the Frontline report "The Enemy Within", on the FBI and a prosecutor who got an obviously innocent couple of Muslims convicted of terrorism in Lodi, California, and the prosecutor, McGregor Scott, was obviously uncomfortable about his role...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 6:32 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Salon has a nice interview with the historian and sociologist of creationism well worth reading. In particular, this: Are you an atheist? I don't think so. I think that's a belief -- that there's no God. I really wanted to...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 2:28 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
A new report says that the injury rate for surfers is lower than for college sports like soccer and basketball. But basketball players don't get bitten by sharks. Actually, all exercise is bad for you. Nobody ever did a hamstring...
Posted by John S. Wilkins at 2:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
