Category Archives: Philosophy

by | March 22, 2012

What warrant is there for belief in God?

Every morning on the way to the campus of the University of Melbourne I pass by the United Faculty of Theology, and I often wish that someone would come out and engage me in a debate. Partly because I am … Continue reading →

41 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Evolution, Philosophy, Religion

by | March 19, 2012

Are humans, apes, monkeys, primates, or hominoids?

I suspect the correct literary answer is that we are Yahoos, but here I want to do what I would ordinarily never dare do: disagree with John Hawks. John takes Jerry Coyne to task for calling humans “apes”: Humans are hominoids. … Continue reading →

22 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Natural Classification, Species and systematics, Systematics

by | March 18, 2012

Hume’s Dialogues: A coloured edition

Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is one of the very best philosophical works ever written, as I was reminded this morning while seeking a passage. But it is not easily available in a decent format online. Sure, you can download a … Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under History, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Religion

by | March 4, 2012

What, however, is the EAAN?

[Previous posts: One and Two] I may have been too hasty in my acceptance that Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism was not what I had originally given. As commenter Nick Matzke pointed out, Plantinga seems to be doing a bit … Continue reading →

22 Comments

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

by | March 3, 2012

Plantinga’s EAAN revisited

Blogs are places where one tosses out a hastily constructed piece of argument, or commentary, and not where one slowly and thoughtfully writes something that one will eventually earn an income from (unless you are PZ Myers). So when I … Continue reading →

14 Comments

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

by | February 18, 2012

Doxastic biases and arguments for religion (and other things)

Helen De Cruz has the results of a fascinating survey on how various arguments for and against the existence of God are treated by philosophers… according to their general stance – atheist, agnostic, or theist. Basically it considers not whether … Continue reading →

75 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Logic and philosophy, Philosophy, Religion

by | February 16, 2012

Quote: Nominalism

Nominalism has often been misunderstood in the past, perhaps because of the associations of the word itself. Properly conceived, nominalism has nothing to do with names. It is, quite precisely, the thesis that everything which exists is an individual, and is … Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under History, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Quotes

by | February 11, 2012

Is Santorum the finest mind of the 13th century?

Apparently a reviewer of one of his books so called him that because he applies natural law theory to moral and political policy. I think he’s just warmed over neo-Thomism with a dash of Newman, no small thing in itself, … Continue reading →

18 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, History, Science

by | February 7, 2012

Did Popper and Quine invent “Aristotelian essentialism”?

There are many narratives told about evolution. One of the most widely told is the Essentialism Story, replayed in textbook, popular storytelling and philosophy alike. It goes like this: Before Darwin, biologists were constrained by essentialist thinking, in which they … Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Biology, Evolution, History, Logic and philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science, Species and systematics, Species concept, Systematics

by | February 4, 2012

Is the dismal science even possible?

A thought occurred to me. Given that money is an abstraction of an abstraction (value) of an abstraction (resources and labor) of things, and so has no standing in any ontology of society, is economics even possible as a science? … Continue reading →

18 Comments

Filed under Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science