Category Archives: Logic and philosophy

by | January 14, 2012

Notes on novelty 7: Surprise!

Notes on Novelty series: 1. Introduction 2. Historical considerations – before and after evolution 3: The meaning of evolutionary novelty 4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell 5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation 6: Levels of description 7: Surprise! 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo … Continue reading →

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

by | December 25, 2011

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 →

7 Comments

Filed under History, Logic and philosophy, Science

by | November 27, 2011

Once more into the fray, dear agnostics

I like Larry Moran. More than any other scientist, he has educated me on the standard (and occasionally nonstandard) theories of evolution, biochemistry (of which I know little, but what I do know is largely due to him), and even … Continue reading →

31 Comments

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

by | November 25, 2011

Prescriptions for atheists

Jeez. You go away for a few days, to the beach and countryside, and come back to find that progress has been made in philosophy; in particular regarding the right view to hold about religion and the religious. The story … Continue reading →

25 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Humor, Logic and philosophy, Philosophy, Rant, Religion

by | November 9, 2011

On the suspension of belief and disbelief

I have often addressed the distinction between atheism and agnosticism but I haven’t said a lot about what agnosticism involves, apart from it being a suspension of judgement about belief claims. So a few remarks are in order, prompted (but … Continue reading →

19 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Logic and philosophy, Philosophy, Religion

by | October 27, 2011

The mind of the ecological engineer

I watched a very interesting documentary episode recently, entitled “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” (a phrase of poet Richard Brautigan’s), in which the maker Adam Curtis put forward the view that ecology was founded (at least in … Continue reading →

29 Comments

Filed under Ecology and Biodiversity, Evolution, General Science, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science

by | September 6, 2011

The principle of charity, qualia, and philosophy

I’ve hurt my back, so I aim to rant a little. When I teach critical reasoning just about the first thing I teach is the principle of charity. It has many formulations: This policy calls on us to fit our … Continue reading →

75 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Rant, Truisms

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