Category Archives: Basic Concepts
Basic Concepts: Biology
This is a list of the Basic Concepts posts being put up by Science Bloggers and others. It will be updated and put to the top when new entries are published. If you are not a Scienceblogger, email me and … Continue reading
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Basic Concepts: Physics and Astronomy, Geology, and Chemistry
This is a list of the Basic Concepts posts being put up by Science Bloggers and others. It will be updated and put to the top when new entries are published. If you are not a Scienceblogger, email me and … Continue reading
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Filed under Basic Concepts
What is a basic concept?
In the process of maintaining the Basic Concepts in Science list I often have to make a judgement call about whether or not something is a basic enough post. For example I have a slew of rather good but to … Continue reading
Filed under Basic Concepts, General Science
Del.icio.us Evolving Thoughts
We got delicioused, for the Basic Concepts Post, and wow, scores of links and (I hope) new readers. Some of the referrals [UPDATED]:
Filed under Administrative, Basic Concepts
What is “life”, at last
Recently, that is since 1975 or so, the view has arisen that a living thing is something that satisfies several conditions.
Filed under Basic Concepts, Evolution
What is “life”, again?
Now we turn to the modern accounts of life. In 1828, Friedrich Wöhler produced uric acid without using “kidney of man or dog”. Prior to that time, there was considered to be something different between organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry. … Continue reading
The meaning of “life”
Carl Zimmer has one of his usually clear and precise articles on recent work on the nature of life, focussing on the work of Carol Cleland, who is at the National Astrobiology Institute, despite reduced funding for actual science by … Continue reading
What is an individual?
Rob Wilson has a new entry up at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entitled “The Biological notion of an individual”. It discusses an interesting problem, one that goes back to discussions by Julian Huxley in 1911. What is an individual … Continue reading
Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds: 3. Science is a Dynamic Process
In this post, I want to propose my own view, or rather the views I have come to accept, about the nature of science. [Part 1; Part 2]
Filed under Basic Concepts, Evolution, General Science, Logic and philosophy, Social evolution
Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds: 2. Two topics of philosophy of science
Philosophy of science deals largely with two general topics: Metaphysics and Epistemology. These are general topics of philosophy, and in the philosophy of science they deal only with the metaphysics and epistemology of science. So there are no overarching debates … Continue reading
Filed under Basic Concepts, General Science, Logic and philosophy, Social evolution
