Epistemology Of Interest 5 May 20235 May 2023 One of the questions that have plagued my insomniac nights over the past decade or so is what makes something interesting. There are many proposals. I was reminded of this when I recently read this in Yohan J. John’s essay on cell membranes and boundaries: We have a name for… 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
Epistemology A talk on understanding 27 Jun 2019 I will be presenting this one at ISHPSSSB in Oslo in a couple of weeks. Comments and objections received with the usual ill grace… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity 50 words for snow 7: taxing attacks on taxa 1 Jan 2018 We should consider in each case what Question it is that is proposed, and what answer to it would, in the instance before us, be the most opposite or contrasted to the one to be examined. E.G. “You will find this doctrine in Bacon” may be contrasted, either with “You… Continue Reading
Epistemology 50 words for snow 6: constructing phenomena 11 Dec 20171 Mar 2019 Series Conceptual confusion The economics of cultural categories What are phenomena? What counts as sociocultural? Species Constructing phenomena Explanations and phenomena There is a naive empiricist view held by nobody on close inspection, that phenomena merely present themselves to the observer, and call for explanation. At least since Kant, such… Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design Closet Darwinism, and definitions 12 Apr 201412 Apr 2014 Every so often, somebody makes the case that “Darwinism”, “Darwinist” and “Darwinian”, being the generic noun, the individual term, and the adjective of Darwin’s name and therefore (supposedly) theory, are dead terms that cause nothing but harm (see Scott and Branch 2009). Larry Moran has just made this very argument,… Continue Reading
Epistemology Ooh! Shiny! 4 Sep 20134 Sep 2013 Just got the draft cover art of my new book with Malte Ebach: I designed the logo myself… clever, hey? Continue Reading
Epistemology Pizza reductionism, emergence and phenomena 20 Sep 201227 Oct 2018 Debates over reduction in science are as old as philosophy of science, but in the 1960s, Ernest Nagel’s book The Structure of Science really set things going. Nagel argued that a goal of science was to reduce one theory to a more general and explanatory theory, so that one can deduce… Continue Reading
Education Scientism and methodological naturalism 9 Sep 201210 Sep 2012 So I’ve been busy with work, and finding a flat and preparing to move. Larry’s been busy tearing strips off those who argue that the ENCODE data shows the genome is mostly functional (only if you think that doing anything happens to be functional). But I hadn’t forgotten his latest… Continue Reading
Epistemology Metaphysical determinism 20 May 201227 Aug 2012 There is a hypothesis called the Sapir-Whorf Thesis (also known as linguistic relativity) in language that one can only think what one’s language permits you to think, and indeed forces you to think. This idea that some conceptual scheme can determine how you think is widely held. It appears again… Continue Reading