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
Epistemology Notes on Novelty 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo 15 Jan 201221 Jun 2018 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 With the growth of developmental genetics, it is possible to… Read More
Administrative Travel Diary 10: DC 27 Oct 2009 I met these guys and got trashed: I circled our next destination in red… From left, my host, Mitch Coffey, me, Mike Ikeda, and Robert Grumbine. Robert’s wife Vicki is taking the shot; and of course she was the sanest one there. Unfortunately, Homeland Security showed not the slightest interest… Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 5: Social Dominance and Power 2 Nov 20112 Nov 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Thus far we have focused on the differences between human beings and apes, and the ways we should expect to find each species behave. What do all apes… 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.