Administrative A paperback of Species: A History 12 Jan 2011 My not-inconsiderable ego has expanded several sizes upon the news from University of California Press that my book Species: A History of the Idea (see at right or on the My Books page) is to become a paperback. I hope to make a couple of corrections, and maybe add a… Continue Reading
Book A review of my species book 22 Dec 2010 David Morrison, editor at Systematic Biology, has given me a very nice and well informed and researched review for my book Species: A history of the idea. He even likes the cover. I have had some good and mixed reviews, but this one took time and effort, and he gets… Continue Reading
Book Scientist’s Operating Manual – Evidence; gathering, measuring, analysing 7 Oct 2010 In this chapter we will look at how science gathers information about the world, and what it does with it. [Contributors should write their bits in the comments, and I will collate them below the fold or in new posts. By the way, contributors will be named unless they don’t… Continue Reading
Book Scientist’s Operating Manual – Introduction 30 Sep 2010 If you open any number of science textbooks, introductions to the philosophy of science, or books that attack pseudoscience, you will find a discussion of What The Scientific Method Is. For it is assumed from the start that either there is a scientific method, or that there is not and… Continue Reading
Book Rieppel reviews my book 24 Sep 2010 … at Metascience here. The book, of course, is my Species: A history of the idea. The concluding paragraph is this: Does Wilkins deliver on his promise? Does the ‘essentialism story’ capture the essence of the centuries old debate about ‘what is a species’? Wilkins delivers a resounding NO, and… Continue Reading
Book Stephen Hawking and the creation of the universe 4 Sep 201024 Nov 2022 I should begin by saying that I haven’t read Hawking’s book with Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design, and I probably won’t. But the way it is being hyped in the media, social and mainstream, suggests that what he is claiming, which is nothing novel, is that we have finally done… Continue Reading
Book A book review: Merchants of Doubt 30 Aug 201024 Nov 2022 This guest review is courtesy of Richard Harter, whose own website is here. Continue Reading
Book At last, a proper review of Fodor and Piatelli-Palmerini 3 Jul 2010 Peter Godfrey-Smith reviews What Darwin Got Wrong in the London Review of Books, and finally the review matches the book I am reading. PGS is usually right on everything, so read this one. It is critical, but doesn’t suppose that FAPP have made grade school level errors, like so many… Continue Reading
Book Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon 22 Jun 2010 My next book [I just love the sound of that] has been published. Here’s a flyer. It’s an anthology of papers on the title topics, with an introduction by yours truly… it’s cheaper if you buy it directly from the publisher from here. Many thanks to Neil Levy, series editor… Continue Reading
Book Favourite Terry Pratchett Discworld novels 17 Jun 2010 This popped up on alt.fan.pratchett (yeah, I know, I’m Avoiding Work), so of course I had to. Feel free to disagree, although anyone who dislike Pratchett and the Holy Discworld Scriptures is a lost cause and should not be replied to. Under the fold: Continue Reading