Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
- Francis Bacon
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Sam Harris has published a piece in the New York Times decrying the appointment of Francis Collins to head the NIH. It's strong stuff; he points out that Collins isn't just a Christian, he's an active science-denier who has set aside whole blocks of scientific inquiry as inaccessible to study…
Nothing destroys authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power, pressed too far and relaxed too much.
- Francis Bacon
Many people are confused about what counts as a fallacy, including teachers of critical reasoning. Opponents of science often accuse pro-science writers of "the fallacy of authority" or "the ad hominem fallacy" when they are noted for having made silly and false claims before. I thought some words…
Warning: Artsy-fartsy post.
Read this article on Francis Bacon, a unique artist. His painting of the head in a cube (that's Pope X) kept me disturbed for many days and nights. Later in life, Bacon hated having painted this, saying it was a mistake to engage with Velázquez's original. That could…
One of my favourite detective novels is The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which has a bedridden detective try to work out if Richard II was guilty of the murder of his nephews as the Tudors charged.