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
Ecology and Biodiversity Ecological speciation 30 Sep 201118 Sep 2017 A new paper in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology (link below) assesses the possibility of speciation by ecological differentiation in conjunction with geographical isolation. The interesting thing here is that it takes two views previously considered as antagonists and combines them into a single model. “Standard” views of speciation assume… Continue Reading
Evolution Huxley on species 14 Sep 201114 Sep 2011 I bought a fine copy of the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley in 3 volumes. On page 343f of volume I I find his thoughts on speciation, addressed to the Rev. Charles Kingsley (author of the Water Babies) on April 30, 1863. My dear Kingsley … With respect… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Counting species 26 Aug 201122 Jun 2018 Suppose a scholar of toys wanted to count the number of kinds of toys in the world. Since this information is not generally recorded, the scholar might look at the ways toys are used, the sales figures, or the designs recorded in the patents and trademarks offices in order to… Continue Reading
Epistemology Domains and theories in science 19 Jun 201122 Jun 2018 We are getting to the tail end of this series. Here are the previous posts: The false analogy between species and art Pattern cladism and the myth of theory dependence of observation Species, phenomena and data More on phenomena Disambiguating the Theory-Dependence of Observation thesis (TDOT) In this post I… Continue Reading
Philosophy More on phenomena 9 Jun 201122 Jun 2018 Semifinalist for the 3 Quarks Daily Philosophy Prize 2011 In my last post, I asked whether there was a foundation for my view that species are extra-theoretical phenomena. I have done some further reading, especially Michela Massimi’s book Kant and Philosophy of Science Today, which I will have to buy…. Continue Reading
Biology Evolution quote: Sirks and Zirkle 25 Apr 201122 Feb 2026 From The Evolution of Biology (M J Sirks and Conway Zirkle, New York, Ronald Press, 1964: 305) This is basically what I argue in my Species book. I am getting used to finding that the older and unappreciated historians did the same thing I did much later. They are generally… Continue Reading
History Somehow, I got minions/The first biological species concept revisited 17 Mar 2011 It’s late in Real Time so I can only do a brief one now… I made the mistake of noting on Twitter that I lacked minions after PZ accused me of hating his. Of course I don’t hate them. It’s just that, as an agnostic I am superior to them… Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design Intelligent designoids are unsure about me 27 Jan 2011 Normally I wouldn’t link to these guys, but I’m having a kind of odd week with the ID crowd. On the one hand the ever reliable Casey Luskin has declared I am condescending for suggesting we teach science free of religious overtones to young children (but Kelly Smith is more… Continue Reading