Ethics and Moral Philosophy Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 4: Predicting traits 29 Oct 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 Species have typical traits, anatomically. There is, however, a bit of a myth that before Darwin people thought species had essences which were invariant for all organisms within them. Since this myth was… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 3: clades and grades 20 Oct 201122 Jun 2018 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Note: My researchers readers have inundated provided me with all kinds of interesting references (hi Jeb and Jocelyn). One that is particularly interesting is this book. It appears… Continue Reading
Biology Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 2: chains and trees 18 Oct 201122 Jun 2018 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Very famously, Darwin came up with the idea of the evolutionary tree. What is not often realized is that it is the tree that is more uniquely Darwin’s than natural selection, for which… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 1: Introduction 11 Oct 201122 Jun 2018 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power This is an extended meditation upon the recent film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). There may be spoilers (first and final warning) so read at your own risk. The film… Continue Reading
Epistemology Naturalism and investigating the unnatural 21 Sep 201118 Sep 2017 Recently, Tim Williamson attacked what is known in the philosophical community as naturalism in a blog at the New York Times. A rejoinder by Alex Rosenberg defended it. Williamson’s argument is that the idea of naturalism – that we can somehow reduce all properties and things to physical things through… Continue Reading
Biology Downward Causation 9 Aug 201122 Jun 2018 The final claim for there being an ontological sense to emergence is “downward causation“, a phrase coined by the evolutionary epistemologist Donald Campbell in the 1970s. The idea here is that emergence is real because higher-level (or bigger, composite) entities cause changes in the properties and dynamics of their parts…. Continue Reading
Epistemology Why do philosophy of science 6 Jul 20116 Jul 2011 Every so often, somebody will attack the worth, role or relevance of philosophy on the internets, as I have discussed before. Occasionally it will be a scientist, who usually conflates philosophy with theology. This is as bad as someone assuming that because I do some philosophy I must have the… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy hand signals 20 Mar 201122 Jun 2018 Courtesy of Brian Leiter, the APA Philosophy Referee Handsignals. I now want someone to make these into semaphore format. And for Sam Harris: Continue Reading
Epistemology The nature of philosophy and its role in modern society 6 Feb 2011 Those who spend their days obsessively noting every little change in blog designs will note that I have added a big red “P” at the bottom left. This links to the Philosophy Campaign – an attempt to make philosophy more relevant to modern society. So I got to thinking… what… Continue Reading