Freedom So, how did we get here? 7 Nov 20247 Nov 2024 This is not my beautiful world Shit got real just now, but it took a long time and a lot of inattention and complacency, basically since the 1950s. It began with the unholy alliance of manufacturing and the military during the Cold War and the technowashing of German military engineers… Continue Reading
History On the difference between a people and a nation 26 May 202426 May 2024 A substack notice Continue Reading
Biology Species-related publications 8 Sep 20238 Sep 2023 What’s a personal blog for, if not to blow my own horn? Well, it can only be to blow the horns of those who I have collaborated with, of course. Two of my most recent publications are: The first is a chapter in the open Access book edited by Schwartz… Continue Reading
Censorship Feet of clay problem 23 Nov 202223 Nov 2022 What to do with historical bastardry in our heroes? This is republished from my substack. Henceforth such posts – the equivalent of a magazine article or an essay – will appear first on the substack and then on the blog evolvingthoughts.au. After a distance of time, they will end up… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Environmentalism timetable 6 Dec 20196 Dec 2019 I prepared this for my students and thought others might like it. It’s a timetable of environmental law, politics, publications of note, events and disasters since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962. Enjoy and send corrections. Continue Reading
Australian stuff The Economy Does Not Exist – thoughts prior to the Australian federal election 2019 7 Apr 20197 Apr 2019 In coming days and weeks we are again going to be bombarded with the usual clichés about the economy. This or that will be good for or bad for The Economy. As a philosopher of sorts, I have problems with this. Some background first. In the philosophy of the social… Continue Reading
Freedom Good faith, bad faith and no faith in reasoning 7 Oct 201823 Nov 2018 We are hearing a lot of calls for there to be public debates with climate deniers, the alt-right (that is, modern fascists), creationists and antivaxxers, and this has led to people marking the so-called “paradox of tolerance” named by Karl Popper in his epochal 1945 Open Society and its Enemies: Continue Reading
Politics The wealthy are often sociopathic. Why? 15 Aug 201827 Feb 2019 I have been encountering, in these days of political “incorrectness” (i.e., bastardry), more and more well-to-do folk who treat other folk as if they were lesser beings. Ranging from stepping over homeless people (literally) to failing to give way when you drive a Korean car and they a European one… Continue Reading
Politics Religious exceptionalism is undemocratic 19 Jan 2018 This is my submission to the government’s “review”. As usual, I get contrarian. Below the fold… Continue Reading
Politics Equality is about protection, not love 20 Aug 201720 Aug 2017 Again and again I see the same-sex marriage (SSM) debate cast in terms of love. And while I agree that people should be free to love those they wish (if it is mutual, and freely given, and no minors are involved), that is not what the SSM debate is really… Continue Reading