Philosophy
grrlscientist | July 26, 2009tags: philosophy, thinking the improbable, middle world, atoms, atheism, physics, Richard Dawkins, streaming video
In this video, Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe [22:42]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
hrynyshyn | July 9, 2009The science machine continues to churn out depressing reports. The high-latitude permafrost contains more carbon than originally thought. The Arctic Ocean ice is even thinner than we feared. But my thoughts are dominated by the issues raised by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum in their new book, Unscientific America.
I reviewed it Tuesday. Today I came across a fascinating interview with NASA climatologist and RealClimate.org founder Gavin Schmidt. It's long but worth reading. Among the highlights is his discussion of his efforts to bridge the cultural gap between scientists and society at…
jstemwedel | June 20, 2009I thought I'd share a snapshot of my morning with you. For some reason, the internet seems like a good place for it.
The paper promised to be about the evaluation of evidence in understanding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What follows are the notes I took during the approximately 25 minute conference presentation, edited to clean up typos. I'm not naming names; Google will provide if you really need to know.
The speaker is going to apply the principles of abductive reasoning to see what can be concluded about the assassination of JFK.
Evidence -- all the available, relevant…
jrosenhouse | June 10, 2009Jerry Coyne has posted his thoughts on the subject of methodological naturalism. Here's a sample:
I am a methodological naturalist, but I don't think that all supernatural claims defy scientific analysis. Moreover, I don't see that the methodological/philosophical distinction has a lot to do with the dissonance between faith and science. The real dissonance, as I have repeatedly emphasized, is between the scientific acceptance of only those claims adjudicated by empirical investigation, and the religious acceptance of “truth” claims that are discovered by revelation (or instruction by one…
jstemwedel | June 3, 2009This came up when I was making dinner.
"Pasta primavera?" I asked.
"I think that jumped the shark in about 1972," Uncle Fishy replied.
"Yeah, but would you eat it?" I asked.
"Sure. It's yummy, and vegetables are always good," he said.
But then, as we were eating, it occurred to us that the Happy Days episode that spawned the concept of jumping the shark was broadcast in 1977 (premiering on September 20th, to be precise).
In light of this fact, is there any X for which X can be said to have jumped the shark prior to 20 September, 1977?
No fair using a time machine,
jstemwedel | May 13, 2009One of the things we'd like to be able to do with our powers of ethical reasoning is tackle situations where we're not immediately certain of the right thing to do (or, for that matter, of the reason why the plan someone else is advocating strikes us as wrong).
A common strategy (at least in an ethics class) is to whip out an ethical principle or rule, try to apply it to the situation you're pondering, and see what it tells you to do: What can I do here that respects the humanity of others and of myself? or, Which of the available courses of action maximizes benefits and minimizes harms (…
jstemwedel | May 9, 2009At least, if you're a member of a philosophy department:
Spending the day with them is enough to get your mind working on interesting problems and productive ways to approach solving them -- and this is true even if while you're together you aren't really discussing philosophy per se. Just being with them puts you in the zone.
Yeah, I really like my department.
sporte | April 30, 2009We had a great discussion in the comments yesterday after I published my NJ trees from some of the flu sequences.
If I list all the wonderful pieces of advice that readers shared, I wouldn't have any time to do the searches, but there are a few that I want to mention before getting down to work and posting my BLAST results.
Here were some of the great suggestions and pieces of advice;
1. Do a BLAST search. Right! I can't believe I didn't do that first thing, I think the trees I got surprised me so much all sense flew out of my brain.
2. Show us the multiple alignments. Okay. I'll…
jstemwedel | April 21, 2009Today we discuss an impediment to dialogue about animals in research that seems to have a special power to get people talking past each other rather than actually engaging with each other:
Imprecision about the positions being staked out.
Specifically, here, the issue is whether the people trying to have a dialogue are being precise in laying out the relevant philosophical positions about animals -- the position they hold, the position they're arguing against, the other positions that might be viable options.
Why is imprecision about your philosophical position a dialogue blocker? It tends…
razib | April 8, 2009David Brooks has a new column grandly titled The End of Philosophy. Heather Mac Donald at Secular Right chides him for his criticism of the New Atheists, while John Derbyshire offers guarded praise. It seems to me that the jab at the New Atheists was something of a throwaway line and I lean more toward John's position. I give Brooks credit for attempting to inject insights from the new cognitive sciences into contemporary political commentary. Politics is a phenomenon which manifests on a grand scale, but its ultimate roots are at least in part in individual human psychology. The empirical…
bcohen | March 18, 2009This post was written by guest contributor Jody Roberts.
Follow this link for his most recent contribution to The World's Fair.
The philosopher Marjorie Grene passed away on Monday, 16 March, at the age of 98. Grene's life is difficult to sum up in a few words, and I don't want to do that anyhow, since plenty of others have and surely will in much better fashion than I can muster. But since I imagine most will be unfamiliar with her work, I quote here from a letter composed by Richard Burian, a dear friend and colleague:
Marjorie Grene passed away March 16 at age 98 after a brief illness…
amillikan | January 31, 2009In this week's episode of Science Saturday, John Horgan chats with philosopher Denis Dutton about his book, "The Art Instinct," which argues that our artistic values are due, in significant part, to biological adaptations dating back to the Pleistocene.
Next, John and Denis discuss sex and creativity, why there is no art of smell, and the appeal for highly abstract art.
purepedantry | January 28, 2009Dennis Overbye at the NYTimes somewhat unintentionally answers the "what is science's rightful place?" question in his column. He emphasizes the similarity and symbiosis between science and democracy:
And indeed there is no leader, no grand plan, for this hive. It is in many ways utopian anarchy, a virtual community that lives as much on the Internet and in airport coffee shops as in any one place or time. Or at least it is as utopian as any community largely dependent on government and corporate financing can be.
Arguably science is the most successful human activity of all time. Which is…
drorzel | January 13, 2009Over at Built on Facts, Matt Springer is easing his way back into blogging by asking "What is Science?". He offers a simple one-sentence definition:
Science is the testing of ideas.
That's all. Every technicality I can think of is avoided so long as the person doing the science is honest. Create fair and objective tests, try not to fool yourself or anyone else, don't be wedded to your hypothesis, basic things like that. Be dishonest and I doubt there's a definition in the world that some sufficiently clever pseudoscientist can't wriggle out of. Test your ideas and be honest about it. That's…
clock | January 11, 2009Listen to my SciBlings Janet and Pal,MD discuss scientific and medical ethics:
jstemwedel | December 31, 2008In a frequently recycled list of proposed New Year's resolutions, Ann Landers urges:
Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep.
However, she fails to advise a course of action in the case that you think you might not be able to live up to this vow.
(Maybe she was too busy trying to construct a set containing sets that are not members of themselves.)
jstemwedel | December 30, 2008If memory serves, today is the day that the meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association draws to a close. That meeting, always conveniently scheduled to fall in the interstices between Christmas and New Year's, and more often than not located in some East Coast city with nasty winter weather (this year, Philadelphia), is traditionally where philosophy departments from U.S. colleges and universities (as well as a few from elsewhere) conduct preliminary job interviews.
Except this year, apparently, a great many job searches have been frozen or canceled, owing to…
amillikan | December 27, 2008This week's Bloggingheads.tv episode features philosopher Joshua Knobe and psychologist Elizabeth Spelke discussing the cognitive abilities of infants.
Here are some more clips of the "diavlog" in addition to the one you can view on the ScienceBlogs home page.
What do you think of this week's Bloggingheads feature?
pharyngula | December 4, 2008Simon Ings has written a wonderful survey of the eye, called A Natural History of Seeing: The Art and Science of Vision(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and it's another of those books you ought to be sticking on your Christmas lists right now. The title give you an idea of its content. It's a "natural history", so don't expect some dry exposition on deep details, but instead look forward to a light and readable exploration of the many facets of vision.
There is a discussion of the evolution of eyes, of course, but the topics are wide-ranging — Ings covers optics, chemistry, physiology, optical…
jstemwedel | November 7, 2008This is not an exhaustive account of my experiences at the PSA so far, but rather what's at the top of my Day-Quil-addled head:
I am not the only academic whose tastes run to hand-drawn slides.
However, it is possible that I am the youngest academic whose tastes run to hand-drawn slides.
Apparently, using Powerpoint marks me as nearly as tremendous a Luddite as using actual overheads. Keynote is where it's at. (But I may be unwilling to actually invest the time necessary to make the transition, especially seeing as how I like hand-drawn slides.)
A "coffee breaks" in the conference schedule…