Cultural evolution essay 6 Jul 2010 At On The Human there’s an essay by Bill Benzon, a friend and colleague of mine, on cultural evolution: “Cultural Evolution: A Vehicle For Cooperative Interaction Between The Sciences And The Humanities”. It’s open to informed and moderated comments in what they cutely call a Sympoze. One of the comments is mine, of course. This is an initiative of the National Humanities Centre, an independent institute for advanced study. Check out some of the earlier essays: Elliot Sober, Pat Churchland, Margaret Boden(!), Gillian Beer; easily a fabulous site. I put my reply beneath the fold… Evolution Metaphysics Social evolution Evolution
Epistemology Sewall Wright on emergence 5 Dec 2009 I came across this passage while looking at the philosophical problem of emergent properties (which I think are purely epistemic). I thought it would be good to put up here… Read More
Evolution Why I love the Jewish point of view 27 Feb 2008 Chaim Potok, I think, once wrote that people either love the Jews too much or hate them too much. I hope I do neither, but I found this particular point of view by Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman a brilliant example of why I don’t want to demonise those who are religious… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Carnival of Evolution 47: All the Evolution News that’s Fit to Blog 1 May 201221 Jun 2018 Welcome to the 47th edition of the Carnival of Evolution. We have had our science reporters out in force hunting down the best of the blogosphere on evolution and related subjects, and here they are for your delectation and delight and other d-words. First some links I encountered in my… Read More
I rather like that way of putting things. All too often I just end up saying things like “Dilthey was wrong! Wrong I tells ya!” BTW, when it comes to your rule about not calling people “peodophilic communist sexist pigs” are you willing to make an exception for Beria? The shoe does seem to fit in his case.
Hi, The “Sympoze” portion on On The Human, is a their incorporation of the external vote button for http://www.sympoze.com It’s a social bookmarking site for academics…the idea is to have a place where academics can collectively share, promote and discover online content. An academic blogger can use the external vote button to make it easy for other academics to promote the blogger’s content. Check out the site. We’re in beta testing now, and we’d love feedback.
I liked the ‘I Know it when I see it’ comment. Not an excuse but partly the result of language diffrences. I find I constantly have to exert much effort in translation. I don’t just know it when I see it but find that I have great difficulty developing a syntax and language to describe the movement (I should be perhaps describing this as replication or reproduction) that I do see. Coupled with the mountian ranges of archive and field work it’s a constant juggling act. I find myself making methodology on the hoof and not slowing down to work out how to express it in clear and simple language. But that may be a personal failing. Looks like a fruitfull debate. Look forward to reading more.