Category Archives: Social evolution

by | June 19, 2011

Domains and theories in science

We are getting to the tail end of this series. Here are the previous posts: The false analogy between species and art Pattern cladism and the myth of theory dependence of observation Species, phenomena and data More on phenomena Disambiguating … Continue reading →

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Filed under Epistemology, Evolution, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science, Social evolution, Species and systematics, Species concept

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by | June 15, 2011

Is reality liberal biased? Are liberals reality biased?

Josh Rosenau has a piece up on Chris Mooney’s latest article on the Republican war on science in the US. Conservative bodies around the western world seem to resist science when it conflicts with policy (usually driven by PR from … Continue reading →

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Filed under Academe, Australian stuff, Philosophy, Politics, Social evolution

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by | March 28, 2011

Turtles all the way down

There is a story, often told about the philosopher William James: One day when the philosopher William James, who had a liking for scientific popularization, had just finished explaining in a small American town how the earth revolved around the … Continue reading →

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Filed under History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science, Sermon, Social evolution

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by | February 6, 2011

The nature of philosophy and its role in modern society

Those who spend their days obsessively noting every little change in blog designs will note that I have added a big red “P” at the bottom left. This links to the Philosophy Campaign – an attempt to make philosophy more … Continue reading →

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Filed under Epistemology, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Social evolution

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by | December 4, 2010

More on David Hull

There’s a special issue of Biology and Philosophy in the wings on the late David Hull. So far, the editorial introduction by Kim Sterelny and a fair summary of his work by Peter Godfrey-Smith have appeared Online First. Springer appear … Continue reading →

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Filed under Biology, Evolution, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Science, Social evolution

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by | October 17, 2010

A link to a kill

I have finished my lecture for tomorrow early! So linkies!

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Filed under Academe, Australian stuff, Creationism and Intelligent Design, Epistemology, Evolution, General Science, Genetics, History, Humor, Internet filtering, Journalism, Links, Media, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Pop culture, Religion, Science, Social evolution, Systematics, Technology, trashcan categorial

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by | October 10, 2010

Unnecessary people

I was kind of musing on the road to ruination we are all skipping merrily down the other day when it occurred to me that there are some well-defined classes of people whose activities are the major reason why things … Continue reading →

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Filed under Humor, Politics, Rant, Social evolution

by | October 7, 2010

Killer Links from Outer Space

I really have to do these more often… but I’ve been teaching.

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Filed under Creationism and Intelligent Design, Ecology and Biodiversity, Education, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Evolution, History, Humor, Journalism, Links, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science, Social evolution

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by | September 28, 2010

On Negation

Jim Harrison is a regular commenter who made an important comment on my piece on Creativity. I invited him to do a guest post, and this is it, below the fold:

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Filed under Guest post, Metaphysics, Social evolution

by | September 25, 2010

On the origins of creativity

I’m not a very creative guy. I had an idea back in the 1970s, but I managed not to do anything about it in time for someone else to do something with an almost identical idea. I think I dodged … Continue reading →

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Filed under Evolution, Philosophy, Social evolution

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