General Science Passing thoughts on Rise of the Planet of the Apes 14 Aug 201114 Aug 2011 Spoilers. Look away. As usual Hollywood cannot present how scientists actually do their work. But Rise is a much better film than I expected. For a start, the social dominance behaviours of primates was well presented, along with submission behaviours, threat stares, reciprocal altruism and a host of documented behaviours…. Continue Reading
Epistemology What should evolutionary psychology comprise? 25 Jul 201125 Jul 2011 Recently there have been a number of posts and comments on evolutionary psychology. A new paper in PLoS Biology argues that human brain evolution since the “stone age” (really?) has been rapid and multifaceted. And there are renewed calls for evolutionary psychology to change. As usual, John Hawks has a… Continue Reading
Evolution Did humans lose dominance? 13 May 2011 An extensive critical review has just been published online in advance of publication for Biology and Philosophy. The title is “Evolution and the loss of hierarchies: Dubreuil’s Human evolution and the origin of hierarchies: the state of nature” by Catherine Driscoll. I haven’t read Benoit Dubreuil’s book. It looks from… Continue Reading
Biology Alienus a me puto 5 Jul 2010 I have mentioned Terence’s line Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto before. It is a declaration that all that is human is not foreign to me. But there are aliens, or we suppose on reasonable grounds that there are, and Stephen Hawking thinks we should not engage them,… Continue Reading
Evolution Culpability and the Catholic Church 12 Apr 2010 The facts are no longer open to interpretation: not only bishops and archbishops, but the then head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, AKA the Inquisition, knew and covered up rather than dealt with pedophiles in the priesthood, and enabled further abuse. Michael Ruse, long an accommodationist,… Continue Reading
Politics You can't have proper human relationships unless you are a Christian 4 Apr 201018 Sep 2017 … according to Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, who seems to think that prior to Jesus nobody ever had a decent human relationship. A secular society is right out, brother. The idea that secularism suggests that people might form relationships without the scaffolding of the church seems to worry him… Continue Reading
Politics You can’t have proper human relationships unless you are a Christian 4 Apr 201018 Sep 2017 … according to Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, who seems to think that prior to Jesus nobody ever had a decent human relationship. A secular society is right out, brother. The idea that secularism suggests that people might form relationships without the scaffolding of the church seems to worry him… Continue Reading
Australian stuff The policy policy 4 Mar 2010 Australian Prime Minister for the Obvious has said that there should be a “zero tolerance” policy against bullying. In other news, a 13 year old Victorian girl who held a kitchen knife to the throat of a 12 year old girl – allegedly – is not to be charged by… Continue Reading
Politics Caste in India 2 Mar 2010 3 Quarks Daily has an excellent essay on the evolution (cultural, of course) of the Varna and Jati system in India. This is often referred to by westerners as “the” caste system. Continue Reading
History Aristotle on politics and religion 16 Feb 2010 “And further he [the tyrant] must be seen always to be exceptionally zealous as regards religious observances (for people are less afraid of suffering any illegal treatment from men of this sort, if they think that their ruler has religious scruples and pays regard to the gods, and also they… Continue Reading