Expertise and ignorance 21 Mar 2008 On the one hand you have Jake Young discussing the role of expertise in public debates, concluding that maybe experts shouldn’t expect that information from knowledgeable folk will automatically influence the uneducated. On the other hand, this… General Science Humor
History It’s official – Wittgenstein wins in a landslide 11 Mar 2009 Leiter’s poll has Wittgenstein beating Frege. I’m disappointed that Peirce didn’t get a higher ranking, and astonished the Nietzsche did. Read More
Evolution The “design” mistake 18 Feb 2008 Back when Darwin was a student at Cambridge, he read, and almost memorised the Rev William Paley’s Natural Theology, and thereafter remained impressed by the obvious adaptiveness of the parts of organisms and their interrelations. As is well known, he gave an explanation differently to Paley’s external intelligence that designs… Read More
Evolution Taxonomy wars, ersatz and echt 18 Mar 2009 Most bloggers know that it is hard to write interesting entries (curse PZ Mnhyrs!), but just occasionally, one writes itself. In one day we get three items about taxonomy: one about real taxonomic disagreement, over whether whales are more closely related to hippos (the whippo hypothesis) than either are to… Read More