Dibs and dobs 28 Oct 2008 One of the downsides to being old is that your favourite teachers die. I learned most of what I know about the Empiricists, in particular John Locke, from a book by C. B. Martin, who passed away recently. Hat tip to Leiter. I didn’t know he spent so much time in Australia. John Lynch is tantalising me with a workshop I very much want to go to but can’t: The 2009 ASU-MBL History of Biology Seminar: Theory in the Life Sciences. It looks like enormous fun (hey, I’m a philosopher: I use philosophical values of “fun”). I Have Views on what counts as a theory in life sciences, and I’d love to see how well they hold up under withering scorn criticism. [If any of my incredibly wealthy readers want to stump for a plane ticket, I can stay with Lynch again. He didn’t mind the snoring much…] The internet filter issue is gathering speed. A good criticism is made by Argosy about the failure of internet filtering in Pakistan and China. Education General Science Internet filtering Technology
General Science Journals object to index metrics 1 Oct 2008 In the light of the ongoing automation of impact factors, usually by somewhat opaque algorithms or procedures, a number of editors of various biomedical jounrals have asked to be taken off a new European reference index. I have taken the liberty of formatting the text below the fold in paragraphs…. Read More
General Science The difference between astrology and astronomy 20 Aug 2009 … about 50 IQ points: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4F5z8cVux0&hl=en&fs=1&] Read More
Education The fourth R: Reasoning 19 Apr 2010 I very much like this attempt, successful so far, it seems, to teach philosophy to school children. But I suspect that it will eventually threaten someone or other. Read More
I never met the man. But there’s a link to a PDF of his obit at the U Calgary link (first one given).
This is very sad. I have Martin’s The Mind In Nature (2008) right next to me as I read this. I picked it up from my library at my university the day before he died–last Wednesday. So far, this is an interesting, austere book–much inside to be admired and fruitfully studied. If the publication was anything like the man, what interesting details can you give us about him, John? Mourning together, BR