Adaptationism issue of Biology and Philosophy 24 Sep 2009 I don’t have time to read and comment on these now, as I’m gearing up to travel for six weeks around Europe and the US, but those who have access might like to check out the special Adaptationism edition of Biology and Philosophy, edited by Patrick Forber. Biology Evolution Philosophy Science
Biology Thermodynamics, and the origin of replicators 14 Mar 2010 Over at Discover, Sean Carroll has a nice post on thermodynamics, free energy and the origins of life. It’s a good intro, but in the course of it he remarks: Obviously there is a lot missing to this story, and much of it is an absence of complete understanding on… Read More
Epistemology Atheism, agnosticism and theism 3: Knowledge claims about gods 20 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One and Two . In an influential book, W. V. O. Quine, one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, wrote with his student: It is important to distinguish between disbelief and nonbelief – between believing a sentence false and merely not believing it true…. Read More
Epistemology Atheism, agnosticism and theism: the landscape, part 1 15 Jul 201125 Jul 2011 In the Socrates Café (Sydney) talk based on my paper “Could God have set up Darwinian Accidents?”, I addressed about 70 people, only a couple of whom were philosophers (hi Rachel, hi Tim). I like doing these talks, because they allow me to make what is otherwise fairly dry technical… Read More