A leading philosopher blogs… about cuttlefish! 4 Jul 20124 Jul 2012 Peter Godfrey-Smith is one of the leading philosophers of biology and science, and he is presently Distinguished Professor of philosophy at CUNY’s Graduate Centre. He also blogs! It’s nice to see that employed academics are catching up with the rest of us. What’s really interesting is that Peter is focussing on evolutionary and mind questions by discussing cephalopods (that should please PZ Myers). And not just what philosophers think about cephalopods, as is the standard practice, but the science behind it. It’s very infrequent, but should inhabit your feed. And I’m not saying this just because Peter complimented my blog last night. He’d been drinking. Biology Evolution Philosophy Science
Natural Classification A quote on science 7 Jan 2011 “All science is either, A. Science of Discovery; B. Science of Review; or C. Practical Science. By “science of review” is meant the business of those who occupy themselves with arranging the results of discovery… The classification of the sciences belongs to this department”. (C.S. Peirce, An Outline Classification of the… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Liveblogging the conference: Stephen Peck 14 Mar 2008 Lunch being had we crowd into a new room to hear Stephen Peck, a biologist from Brigham Young University down the road a ways in Provo. Stephen is talking about ecological boundaries. Read More
Biology Articles of faith: The theological and philosophical origins of the concept of species 22 Oct 201329 Oct 2013 It takes a while for the implications of one’s own work to sink in. In my 2009 book Species, a History of the Idea (see here), I argued that the notion that before Darwin people were essentialistic and fixist about species was false. A recent paper by Jack Powers about Mayr’s misreading… Read More