Logic and philosophy
evolvingthoughts | March 7, 2007
Once upon a time, there was a village that lived on the side of a large mountain. Just above them was a cloud cover that never moved, obscuring what lay above. Below them were dotted many other villages all the way down to the bottom of the valley.
The villagers did not know where they came from. Well, that is not quite right, for there were two opposing schools of thought, both of whom said they knew. One group, the Ascenders, said they came from the villages below, or trekked past them from the valley, where there were many other groups, some quite similar in their languages, dress and…
evolvingthoughts | February 27, 2007
So what if the remains found really are those of Jesus of Nazareth? This joke indicates that for some it might not matter:
One day the Pope received a phone call from an archaeologist in Palestine. "Holy Father," the voice said, "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but we have discovered what prove beyond doubt to be the very bones of Jesus!" Hanging up, the Pope convened his closest advisors. Explaining the situation, he asked the stunned clerics for suggestions. One stammered, "Holy Father, I believe there is a theologian in America who might be able to help us. His name is Paul…
evolvingthoughts | February 25, 2007
Your Dominant Intelligence is Intrapersonal Intelligence
Reflective and thoughtful, you enjoy spending time alone.
You are good at analyzing yourself - and knowing your true feelings.
Totally self aware, you are in tune with your dreams and desires.
A spiritual and philopsophical person, your inner calmness inspires and helps others.
You would make a great philosopher, researcher, or theorist.
What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?
Via GrrlScientist
evolvingthoughts | February 24, 2007
In another interesting piece about demarcation of science from nonscience (see my previous items about this here, here and here), Janet Stemwedel has a nice series of hand-drawn flowcharts that make the difference between creationist arguments and real science clear.
Janet, I would have done nice neat computer-drawn flowcharts for you, if you'd asked...
evolvingthoughts | February 24, 2007
As I recently mentioned Grene's book with Depew, it's worth noting an interview with her by The Believer (Benjamin Cohen) here. It explains some of the themes in the book. Thanks to Benjamin for the heads up.
evolvingthoughts | February 23, 2007
When one is starting in a field for the first time, the choice of textbook is crucial, as it will often set the tone for the rest of one's study. Last year and the year before I helped teach Philosophy of the Life Sciences here, and we used, respectively, one textbook and no textbook. Right now I'm reading a rather marvellous book, that would have set me up years in advance of where I am now, so this got me thinking (it's the job description, you know): what are the textbooks on Philosophy of Biology, and what are their respective merits?
I'm going to ignore the various present and…
evolvingthoughts | February 11, 2007
I went to see this film because it looked like a light comedy, starring Will Ferrell. Boy, was I wrong.
It's a highly intelligent piece which deals with representations, metarepresentations, moral choices, the nature of fiction and rhetoric, individual freedom, personal responsibility, and most of all, the worth of a life. Ferrell is almost perfect as a near-autistic bureaucratic drone who discovers life only to have it threatened. This film redeems him from pretty well everything else he's done (even Bewitched). Emma Thompson plays the conflicted author beautifully. And what is more,…
evolvingthoughts | February 8, 2007
From David Hume's Natural History of Religion Sect III (found via Dennett's Breaking the Spell):
There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. Hence the frequency and beauty of the prosopopoeia in poetry; where trees,…
evolvingthoughts | February 7, 2007
Sahotra Sarkar has published a book on Intelligent Design, that is rather different from other offerings. Sarkar uses the topic as a way to riff off matters of epistemology, the sociology of science and the use of science in society. I haven't seen the published version, but I read an earlier ms copy and on that basis I can recommend it as a more technical and philosophical approach to the topic.
evolvingthoughts | February 7, 2007
Leiter reports that ISU is downsizing, for no apparent reason, its philosophy and physics departments. This is not unique to ISU. I have seen it occur in a couple of Australian universities too. The odd thing is that this is not because student enrolments are low; teaching loads are large in some cases. It appears to be due to individual objections by powers-that-be to philosophy for various reasons. One such reason here is that humanities students attract a lot less funding per head than science students, leading to unreasonable teaching loads to break even. This reduces the research…
evolvingthoughts | January 31, 2007
Can't talk. Eating. Paper. Grant application. Start of School Year for Son. Eating...
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...
evolvingthoughts | January 23, 2007
Species: A term which everybody thinks they understand, but which nobody agrees upon, to denote the "basic units" of groups of biological organisms.
It is sometimes said, or has been said to me, that one ought not know too much about a topic if you are to define it clearly. This is because the expert knows all the many nuances that apply in different conditions, and writes not to the beginner but to the other experts. So I must note here that my thesis and continuing work is on species concepts, and things may get a bit rocky. You've been warned.
First of all I'd like to disagree with…
evolvingthoughts | January 21, 2007
Coincidentally, with my discussion of Peter van Inwagen's chapter on philosophical failure just past, comes a piece in Philosophy Now by Toni Carey, which asks if philosophy is progressive, which is another way of asking whether there is such a thing as philosophical success. Usually, and here also, philosophy is contrasted with science in this respect. 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…
evolvingthoughts | January 18, 2007
I have delivered myself of all kinds of opinions about agnosticism in the past. One common refrain from (in this case, god) deniers is "Are you agnostic about X?", where X is some obviously non-existent object like Thor, fairies, or Republican environmental policies. And the answer to that is not simple. Why is it not simple? The answer comes in a recent book by Peter van Inwagen, a philosopher, which includes a chapter on "Philosophical Failures" (available from here as a PDF).
van Inwagen suggests that philosophical argument is not between two disputants each of which holds an opposing…
evolvingthoughts | January 12, 2007
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 or am unclear, make a comment - this will be revised to make sure it is OK.
Clade: this term of art is a new one in biological systematics, or the science of classification, or taxonomy. The word has given its name to a new science of classification: cladistics, which is properly known as phylogenetic systematics.
A clade is, simply expressed, any branch (Greek: klados) of the evolutionary…
evolvingthoughts | January 9, 2007
I hope the Austin American-Statesman doesn't mind me reproducing this obituary to one of the University of Texas' favourite sons...
Obituary
Robert C. Solomon Sept. 14, 1942 - January 2, 2007
Renowned UT philosophy professor dies suddenly in Zurich
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 05, 2007
Once a month or so, Robert Solomon and his friend James Pennebaker would meet for beer and conversation at a Guadalupe Street watering hole, the Dog & Duck. Most of the time, Solomon, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas, and Pennebaker, a UT psychology professor, would talk…
evolvingthoughts | January 3, 2007A 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 Biohumanities Conference on emotions early last year. The photo shows him and Kathleen Higgins, his wife and profressional philosopher, at that conference. My condolences to Kathleen.
evolvingthoughts | January 2, 2007Mark 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. S. Lewis' Perelandra series. But then he makes the following mistake.
The scientifically-minded should be careful before using such a reductio ad absurdum as another stick with which to beat Christianity. For life on other planets would set science in a spin, too. Take Darwinism. Although evolutionary theory is mute on how life started, it does suggest…
evolvingthoughts | December 30, 2006
Brent Rasmussen, at Unscrewing the Inscrutable, has a nice smackdown of the atheism-intolerance of Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College and Distinguished Scholar of the City University of New York, with which I agree totally.
But in the course of it, Brent shows a taxonomy of the so-called "weak" versus "strong" atheism that is so common on the internet, but which is what I dispute. More below the fold...
Here is Brent's taxonomy in a diagram:
My problem lies in the primacy of the questions that are asked, to which these axes are…
evolvingthoughts | December 13, 2006Chris at Mixing Memory has a couple of interesting posts on religious cognition. They inspired me to present my own hypothesis about the origins of religion, and in particular individual gods...
My own view, which is mine (*ahem*), is pretty simple. While there are benefits to religion in terms of social altruism, cooperation, and the like, these accounts of religion fail to explain why there is a Mars, or Thor, or Zeus, of Shiva. In short, they explain the domain, but not the details.
My own view of religion is that it is a side effect of social dominance behaviour in a particular ape (i.e…