A philosophy blog 24 Jul 2010 I have only just found the blog Journeyman Philosopher by Paul Mealing, a fellow Australian. It is a thoughtful and infrequent blog in which he deals with everything from quantum mechanics and time through to popular culture and speciation. I strongly recommend subscribing to this one. Mealing is a writer, not a professional philosopher (as you might have inferred from the title), which makes his posts the more remarkable. And he’s even been mentioned by Larry Niven! Administrative Philosophy AdministrativePhilosophy
Administrative A logical inference, or, on how to submit Carnival of Evolution posts 21 Jan 201221 Jan 2012 I could put this into standard logical form, or even argument map it, but I’m too lazy. However, since I’ll be hosting one of these soon, I should post this the way Bjørn Østman sent it to me: Carnival of Evolution only works if people submit posts. A person can… Read More
Administrative Wilkins in foreign climes 27 Feb 2008 Well, actually the weather in Tempe, Arizona, seems to be very much like the weather here in Brisbane, but that’s where I’m going. For a couple of weeks. Also in Salt Lake City. So blogging shall be sparse unless I get inspired at the Systematics and Biodiversity workshop, as I… Read More
Administrative Outstanding topics 6 Sep 200718 Sep 2017 I have, I must confess, started a number of projects here that I haven’t finished. Teaching is getting the better of me (and no, I’m not going to put my lectures down on cognitive science, as I do them “freeform”,, so I’d have to do a lot of work to… Read More
Well, after a few comments with him. I’m afraid that either I’m pretty ordinary (as in brain dead) at thinking or Paul is just someone who finds it profound to proffer arguments from ignorance and incredulity. He finds the statement ‘The greatest mystery of the universe is that it created consciousness,’ even meaningful. It’s like asking why is there something rather than nothing? Argument from ignorance.
Just to demonstrate my militant atheist qualities. What does he mean by the universe creating anything? Is it god? Spinoza…..
For my part, I was rather unimpressed at Brian’s commenting style. Leaving aside the content of his comments, what irks me more is Brian’s failure to take responsibility for saying what he intends to say the first time he says it. At one point Brian posts three comments in a row, and later a further two comments in a row. We all occasionally need to write a postscript, but doing so with such regularity smacks both of laziness and of hogging the microphone. (It did not take long for Brian to dominate the ‘recent comments’ widget.) I think this is a bad habit. If it were my blog, I would have edited Brian’s comments by putting some of the postscripts in with the originals, and then deleting the former.
I think it’s just a very emotive topic for some folks Flesh eating dragon and one that it is difficult to grasp opposing perspectives or find any value in diffrent approaches. Presenting a fundamental and exagerated argument and going on academic jihad can be usefull and certainly in my time at uni. somewhat typical in the early stages of a debate. But it’s when both sides start to move, identify the fault lines in there own approach and meet in the middle that they are most succesfull. Somewhat problematic when they don’t and a particular identity becomes static and entrenched.