A series of posts on Categories in systematics 7 May 20257 May 2025 They are on Substack of course, and I forgot to link to them here, so: https://johnwilkins.substack.com/p/category-mistakes-with-explanation https://johnwilkins.substack.com/p/category-mistakes-in-scientific-metaphysics https://johnwilkins.substack.com/p/explanation-and-inference-in-science https://johnwilkins.substack.com/p/concepts-methods-and-categories Biology Ecology and Biodiversity Evolution Genetics Metaphysics Science Species and systematics
Biology Reduction and emergence 8 Aug 20118 Aug 2011 I have been having a metaphysical debate on Twitter, which is more surreal than reading the Tractatus. My interlocutors said a few things which leads me to want to clarify my views a little more than Twitter allows. Hence… My thesis is this: Emergent properties are no different, ontologically speaking,… Read More
Evolution The evolution of bacon 7 Jun 20117 Jun 2011 From Calamities of Nature… The alt text reads “Ironically enough, four billion years later the world witnessed the birth of the first bacon creature, which just happened to be a direct descendent of Harold.” Read More
Censorship A chilling effect 24 Apr 2010 In the judgment in favour of Simon Singh against the British Chiropractic Association’s bogus defamation action, the judge noted that the use of defamation law on scientific discussions had a “chilling effect“, and a movement has resulted to reform libel law, to which all three major parties seem to be… Read More