Classic quotes: Hume 30 Sep 2010 You propose then, Philo, said Cleanthes, to erect religious faith on philosophical scepticism; and you think, that if certainty or evidence be expelled from every other subject of enquiry, it will all retire to these theological doctrines, and there acquire a superior force and authority. Whether your scepticism be as absolute and sincere as you pretend, we shall learn by and by, when the company breaks up: we shall then see, whether you go out at the door or the window; and whether you really doubt if your body has gravity, or can be injured by its fall; according to popular opinion, derived from our fallacious senses, and more fallacious experience. [Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion] Epistemology Philosophy Quotes Religion Science Truisms Philosophy
Book Oh dear… 21 Sep 2009 Whenever a book is touted as a “paradigm shift”, it sends up a major warning flag: Put succinctly, what Alva Noë is offering in Out of Our Heads is nothing short of a paradigm shift, complete with an incisive criticism of the status quo of neurosciences and a suggestion for… Read More
Biology George C. Williams dies 11 Sep 2010 Few evolutionary biologists have had the impact within and without their field as has George Williams, who died this week. His groundbreaking Adaptation and Natural Selection in 1966 set off the debate over levels of selection, the ubiquity of natural selection and some decent philosophising. It’s no exaggeration to say… Read More
Evolution On the origins of creativity 25 Sep 2010 I’m not a very creative guy. I had an idea back in the 1970s, but I managed not to do anything about it in time for someone else to do something with an almost identical idea. I think I dodged a bullet: once you come up with one great idea,… Read More
I really enjoyed this comment when reading Dialogues, but not being a philosopher I wasn’t really sure whether this argument was decisive or that the counter offered by Philo was satisfactory.