Author Archives: John S. Wilkins

About John S. Wilkins

Historian and philosopher of science, especially biology. Apple tragic. Pratchett fan. Curmudgeon.

Yoghurt demonology

As always, click through…

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Metaphysical determinism

There is a hypothesis called the Sapir-Whorf Thesis (also known as linguistic relativity) in language that one can only think what one’s language permits you to think, and indeed forces you to think. This idea that some conceptual scheme can … Continue reading

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Filed under Epistemology, General Science, History, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science, Sermon, Theories

Evolution quotes: Theories are not the whole of science

I opened Structure of Scientific Theories asserting that the “most central or important” problem in philosophy of science is “the nature and structure of theories . . . . For theories are the vehicle of scientific knowledge and one way … Continue reading

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Filed under Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Theories

Evolution quotes: Socialism

To the biologist the problem of socialism appears largely as a problem of size. The extreme socialists desire to run every nation as a single business concern. I do not suppose that Henry Ford would find much difficulty in running … Continue reading

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Filed under Evolution, Politics, Quotes

Empirical Perspectives

Jim Goetz, frequent commenter here, has started up what looks to be a physics and science blog at Empirical Perspectives. Go visit and make rude comments.

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Filed under Administrative, General Science, Science

Why eat meat?

A while back, the New York Times held a blog competition on justifications for eating meat, in 600 words or less. I submitted mine, but I bet it didn’t get far up the selection tree, as the winner is effectively … Continue reading

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Filed under Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Evolution, Philosophy

Analytic thinking, religion and science – the rhetoric and the psychology

Over the past few decades there has been an increasingly large literature on styles of thinking and cognitive biases (to which I am grateful to Jocelyn Stoller, a reader of this blog, for introducing me) in psychology, culminating in the marvellous … Continue reading

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Filed under Cognition, Epistemology, Evolution, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Social evolution

Evolution quotes: Arguments

Arguments have no chance against petrified training; they wear it as little as the waves wear a cliff. Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

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Filed under Humor, Quotes

Carnival of Evolution 47: All the Evolution News that’s Fit to Blog

Welcome to the 47th edition of the Carnival of Evolution. We have had our science reporters out in force hunting down the best of the blogosphere on evolution and related subjects, and here they are for your delectation and delight … Continue reading

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Filed under Ecology and Biodiversity, Evolution, Genetics, History, Natural Classification, Species and systematics, Systematics

Get your Evolution Carnival posts in soon!

There’s only a week left to submit to the next Carnival of Evolution hosted here! Hop to it folks, or I’ll have to link to my own posts, and nobody wants that.

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Filed under Administrative, Evolution