History Ill of the dead 8 Mar 20218 Mar 2021 I have found it necessary, in the course of this volume, to speak of the departed; for the misgovernment of the Royal Society has not been wholly the result of even the present race. It is said, and I think with justice, in the life of Young inserted amongst Dr…. Continue Reading
Biology Do we need, and can we get, a single authoritative list of species? 4 Aug 202025 Aug 2020 In a recent paper, Garnett et al. [2020] have set up what they refer to as the principles for creating a single authoritative list of all known species. This is required because there are no such singular lists (one was attempted in the 1990s, and another in the naughties) to which… Continue Reading
Cognition Thoughts on the Hard Problem 30 Jun 20201 Jul 2020 Most of you will already know that David Chalmers, the once-hirsute Australian philosopher of mind (only Rob Wilson seems to remain in the Hirsute Philosopher’s Club these days. God knows I never was) proposed what came to be known as the Hard Problem of Consciousness: The really hard problem of… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Virulence and vectors 18 Mar 202018 Mar 2020 Apropos of nothing, I am reminded of Paul Ewald’s book Evolution of infectious disease (1994). Ewald begins with the question of whether parasites and pathogens evolve towards commensuality (the state of being mutually beneficial, which is what, among others, Macfarlane Burnet thought, along with many immunologists and epidemiologists. Ewald points out… Continue Reading
Philosophy My species book receives a Choice award 11 Feb 202011 Feb 2020 I am delighted to tell you that my book Species: The Evolution of the Idea has received a 2019 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title Award! The book met the meticulous Choice criteria from originality, uniqueness, and importance in building undergraduate library collections, to overall excellence in presentation and value to… Continue Reading
Philosophy Yes, the bushfires are made worse by climate change 30 Jan 202030 Jan 2020 Says this report by the Washington Post. They note: “Australia, colored a crimson red, sticks out on the global map.” Continue Reading
Philosophy Putnam on taxonomic terms 29 Jan 202029 Jan 2020 Terms with respect to which we defer to experts include both technical terms in science and such terms as ‘elm’ or ‘beech’ (in the United States, at least, most people cannot tell an elm from a beech, but anyone who knows that ‘elm’ and ‘beech’ are the names of common… Continue Reading
Cognition My talk online 31 Oct 201931 Oct 2019 I recently gave a fuller version of my talk “Comprehension as Compression”, and I placed the slideshow on Slideshare. You may also download the PDF: Continue Reading
History Is racism Christian? 21 Sep 201921 Sep 2019 I was taught that racism developed out of Johannes Blumenbach’s Anthropological Treatises in the late eighteenth century, specifically his doctoral thesis On the Natural Variety of Mankind, University of Göttingen, which was first published in 1775. In this work he outlined five races of humanity: Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopean, American…. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity New book contract 29 Jul 201930 Oct 2019 Well CRC Press haven’t learned their lesson yet, and have given me, Frank Zachos (Vienna) and Igor Pavlinov (Moscow) a contract for an edited book of science and philosophy dialogue entitled Species and Beyond. Anyone who wants a particular topic to be covered, leave it in the comments. I won’t… Continue Reading