Biology David Hull’s philosophy 12 Aug 2010 David Hull was one of the first graduates from the University of Indiana’s HPS program. During that program he attended a seminar with Karl Popper in the course of which he wrote a paper on essentialism in biology. Popper took it upon himself to send this, without telling Hull, to… Continue Reading
Epistemology Dynamics and classification redux 7 Aug 2010 In my last two posts in this series, I suggested that science is a field of possible moments, with no set trajectory over what I called the “dance floor of science”. Some commentators have objected to this, arguing that there is no real difference between classification and theory building. I… Continue Reading
Epistemology Natural classification and the dynamics of science 6 Aug 201018 Sep 2017 About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not to theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel pit and count the pebbles and describe their colours. How odd it is… Continue Reading
History Evolution quote 6 Aug 2010 As all sciences are based upon facts, known, or to be known from experience, so are they, in their early state of developement [sic], matters of pure observation. It is only when we have acquired the power of generalising these facts, when such generalisations agree among themselves and with every… Continue Reading
Epistemology The strange inversion of natural classification 6 Aug 2010 Around the time Charles Darwin headed off on his world tour (Rio! Sydney! Capetown!), taxonomists exercised themselves greatly over what was a “natural classification” in natural history, roughly in biology and geology. The shared view was that, as the system of Linnaeus was artificial, relying as it did solely on… Continue Reading
Biology Names and nomenclature in classification 17 Jul 2010 One of the main focuses in the literature, especially in biology, regarding classification is the problem of nomenclature, of names. Many treat classification as being all about names, an error that is akin to mistaking not the map for the territory, but the names on the map for the territory…. Continue Reading
Biology Last year in Lisbon… 13 Jul 2010 I attended an excellent conference organised by the wonderful Nathalie Gontier at the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa, in April last year. Now, the proceedings has been published in a special issue of Theory in Biosciences here. These are the contents: Double Special Issue: Darwin evaluated by… Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design Random thoughts about God and evolution 27 Jun 2010 As some may know, I am writing a couple of book chapters to try to sell a proposal to a publisher for The Nature of Classification, a book I am coauthoring with Malte Ebach. I bring the philosophy and he brings the knowledge. However, this means I am not devoting… Continue Reading
Evolution Homology 16 Jun 201030 Oct 2025 In a recent Nature, R. John Ellis, author of How Science Works, takes exception to Eugenie Scott’s review and says this about her use of “homology”: The word was invented in 1843 by anatomist Richard Owen to mean “the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and… Continue Reading
Evolution Evolution quotes 12 Jun 2010 Evolution and phylogeny.—Evolution is the process and phylogeny the record of descent. Phylogeny is thus the measure of relationship, and is to be expressed in terms of community of ancestry; hence, if relationship is to express evolution adequately, it must take account of each change, from the branch to the… Continue Reading