Evolution quotes 31 May 2010 Evolution itself, it must be remembered, does not necessarily mean, applied to society, the movement of man to a desirable goal. It is a neutral, scientific conception, compatible either with optimism or with pessimism. According to different estimates it may appear to be a cruel sentence or a guarantee of steady amelioration. And it has been actually interpreted in both ways. In order to base Progress on Evolution two distinct arguments are required. If it could be shown that social life obeys the same general laws of evolution as nature, and also that the process involves an increase of happiness, then Progress would be as valid a hypothesis as the evolution of living forms. … In fact, upon the neutral fact of evolution a theory of pessimism may be built up as speciously as a theory of optimism. [John Bagnell Bury, The idea of progress; an inquiry into its origin and growth, 1920] Evolution History Philosophy Quotes Social evolution EvolutionHistoryPhilosophyQuotes
Logic and philosophy Explanation 13 Jul 200718 Sep 2017 But state space models in physical sciences tend to provide not a single coordinate, but a surface over which the system or phenomenon under explanations can range – so long as the observed trajectory of the system is on or near the surface described by the model, there is so far an explanation of the facts. A full explanation would, I think, involve showing in a suitably rich state space that only the actual states are possible, in the order they are observed (which turns out to be a single coordinate in a state space of the dynamical model after all). Read More
Censorship Internet filter pwn 10 Nov 2008 Read this article by Mark Newton. This gets murkier and sillier by the day. Late addition: From the comments at the linked site: As a young person ( 22 ) who has been brought up on the internet and as a ALP member myself working for a Labor State Govt…. Read More
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… Read More
Reminiscent of T.H. Huxley’s famous line: “Let us understand, once and for all, that the ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it, but in combating it.”