The classification of facts and the formation of absolute judgments upon the basis of this classification—judgments independent of the idiosyncrasies of the individual mind—essentially sum up the aim and method of modern science. The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own. The classification of facts, the recognition of their sequence and relative significance is the function of science, and the habit of forming a judgment upon these facts unbiassed by personal feeling is characteristic of what may be termed the scientific frame of mind.
Karl Pearson, The Grammar of Science, §2, page 6
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Categories: Epistemology · Philosophy · Science · Systematics
Several items have come to my attention on why properly identifying and treating species has practical effects:
Correctly identifying the bugs that have laid eggs and matured on corpses will give time of death, but only if the right species are identified.
Misidentifying two species of skate as one back in the 1920s has meant that overfishing of one of them leaves it near extinction. [Watch out: there is a Flash movie on this page that may leave your computer unresponsive. I just had to reboot my Mac, which never happens.]
The U.N. has finally admitted that overgrowth of one particular species has caused global warming, and that the solution is to manage its population levels.
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Categories: Ecology and Biodiversity · Science · Species and systematics · Species concept
Tagged: Pop culture
Some people have asked me how I did a PhD, and wrote and taught a subject, while I was also manager of a department of graphic artists, receptionists, and animators, and did the annual report and various other publications. The answer is:
Lazy Manager Theory
The principle is: if you are working too hard, you are working inefficiently. The most efficient manager does almost nothing. This is because you should allow your staff to do their work unimpeded, and only get involved when one of them is having trouble (usually, if you have employed the right people, due to some client, not their capabilities).
Below the fold are the Rules of LMT.
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Categories: Administrative · Philosophy · Truisms · trashcan categorial
“We do not know in what either reason or instinct consists, and therefore cannot tell with exactness how they differ; but surely he that contemplates a ship and a bird’s nest will not be long without finding out that the idea of the one was impressed at once, and continued through all the progressive descents of the species, without variation or improvement; and that the other is the result of experiments compared with experiments, has grown, by accumulated observation, from less to greater excellence, and exhibits the collective knowledge of different ages and various professions.
“Memory is the purveyor of reason, the power which places those images before the mind upon which the judgment is to be exercised, and which treasures up the determinations that are once passed, as the rules of future action, or grounds of subsequent conclusions.” Johnson: Rambler #41 (August 7, 1750)
Categories: Biology · History
Tagged: Quotes
Have any of my readers either taught or been taught from a good critical reasoning text? If so, can you name it and recount the pros and cons of that text? I’m preparing a subject. Thanks
Categories: Epistemology · Logic and philosophy · Philosophy
November 16, 2009 · 1 Comment
Mark Liberman has a good essay on why we shouldn’t be seeking genes for X here.
Categories: Biology · Evolution · Genetics · Logic and philosophy · Philosophy · Science
To be skeptical of climate models and credulous about things like carbon-eating trees and cloudmaking machinery and hoses that shoot sulfur into the sky is to replace a faith in science with a belief in science fiction. This is the turn that “SuperFreakonomics” takes, even as its authors repeatedly extoll their hard-headedness. All of which goes to show that, while some forms of horseshit are no longer a problem, others will always be with us. [Read more]
Categories: General Science · Politics
As for the other spiritual beings [daimones], it is beyond our task to know and speak of how they came to be. We should accept on faith the assertions of those figures of the past who claimed to be the offspring of gods. They must surely have been well informed about their own ancestors. So we cannot help believing the children of the gods, even though their accounts lack plausible or compelling proofs. Rather, we should follow custom and believe them, on the ground that what they claim to be reporting are matters of their own concern. Accordingly, let us accept their account of how these gods came to be and state what it is. [Plato, Timaeus 40d4-40e6, translated by Donald J. Zeyl, Hackett Publishing 2000]
It might be the case that Plato was speaking more truly than he realised, if gods are mythological humans.
Categories: History · Philosophy · Religion
