Monthly Archives: August 2011

by | August 10, 2011

Domains, disciplines and levels

I have to get this out of my head so I can go do some real work (like finding some real work). Next time someone wants me to do metaphysics, they better come armed with a cheque. So if, as … Continue reading →

22 Comments

Filed under Biology, Epistemology, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Natural Classification, Science, Systematics

by | August 9, 2011

Downward Causation

The final claim for there being an ontological sense to emergence is “downward causation“, a phrase coined by the evolutionary epistemologist Donald Campbell in the 1970s. The idea here is that emergence is real because higher-level (or bigger, composite) entities … Continue reading →

23 Comments

Filed under Biology, Epistemology, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Evolution, General Science, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science

by | August 8, 2011

Reduction and surprisal, or, why water is wet

In his classic work A System of Logic, which set up so many of the issues and problems of the modern field of the philosophy of science, John Stuart Mill wrote: Not a trace of the properties of hydrogen or … Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science

by | August 8, 2011

Reduction and emergence

I have been having a metaphysical debate on Twitter, which is more surreal than reading the Tractatus. My interlocutors said a few things which leads me to want to clarify my views a little more than Twitter allows. Hence… My … Continue reading →

15 Comments

Filed under Biology, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science

by | August 3, 2011

Honey, I accidentally redesigned the blog!

Oh well. I was playing with WordPress design templates and I clicked the wrong button. Now I have this rather clean design, but I can’t fix the banner because Illustrator CS2 no longer runs on OS X Lion. When I … Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Administrative

by | August 2, 2011

God damn Tony Piro!

Tony Piro does this comic: But that’s not why God should damn him. Philosophers do these sorts of things to their kids, and neither of my kids could leave home because Achilles and the Tortoise were always blocking the door. … Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Humor, Philosophy, Pop culture, Religion

by | August 2, 2011

Yet another “post-Darwinism”

Over the years there have been many books that purport to “radically revise” or “supplant” Darwinian evolutionary biology; they come with predictable regularity. Usually they are of three kinds: something is wrong with natural selection, something is wrong with inheritance, … Continue reading →

26 Comments

Filed under Book, Epistemology, Evolution, Philosophy, Science

by | August 2, 2011

Penises, criminals and me

It’s all there at Darwin Eats Cake Update and elaboration: I asked Jon Wilkins’ (no recent relation) comic creation Guillame the Adaptationist Goat to explain why we make weird faces when orgasming. Lest my readers think I have done an … Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Humor