Category Archives: History
Happy Newtonmas
Isaac Newton was born on the 25th of December (under the old Calendar; in our calendar he was born on 4 January, but ignore that for this post). In a wonderful marriage of good scholarship and computers (often a very … Continue reading
Filed under History, Logic and philosophy, Science
The meaning of Christmas
Tony Piro creatively borrows from Peanuts. Click on the picture to see the full comic. Tony has Linus give a fairly standard view, that Christmas is based on prior religious traditions. He carefully avoids making Linus repeat the “Christmas is … Continue reading
Filed under History, Humor, Pop culture, Religion
Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 2: chains and trees
Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Very famously, Darwin came up with the idea of the evolutionary tree. What is not often realized is that it is the tree … Continue reading
Filed under Biology, Epistemology, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Evolution, History, Philosophy, Social evolution
Competition: copy of my species book
My book Species: A History of the Idea is soon to be available in paperback. I have a few copies I’d like to share, so put your name in the comments and make sure your email is filled out (it … Continue reading
Filed under Administrative, History, Humor, Species and systematics
Huxley on species
I bought a fine copy of the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley in 3 volumes. On page 343f of volume I I find his thoughts on speciation, addressed to the Rev. Charles Kingsley (author of the Water Babies) … Continue reading
Filed under Evolution, History, Natural Classification, Species concept
Goodbye freedom
Ten years ago tomorrow tonight I was watching an episode of West Wing, and, as I do, channel surfing during the ads. One channel showed a fire in the World Trade Centre, which less than a month earlier I had … Continue reading
