Flew, into the Cuckoo’s Nest 3 Nov 2007 Sorry about that pun – it’s been around for a while since Antony Flew, quandam philosopher and “Darwinian”, announced he was converting to a kind of deism. Jon Pieret, who often comments on this blog when he should be writing for his own, covers the facts as far as we can ascertain them. I am deeply sympathetic to Flew here. I too suffer from nominal aphasia. I tell my students that I forget my own kids names, and I only have two. Of different sexes. They laugh, but it’s true… Logic and philosophy Religion
Epistemology The principle of charity, qualia, and philosophy 6 Sep 20116 Sep 2011 I’ve hurt my back, so I aim to rant a little. When I teach critical reasoning just about the first thing I teach is the principle of charity. It has many formulations: This policy calls on us to fit our own propositions (or our own sentences) to the other person’s… Read More
Evolution The World according to Genesis: Stuff that grows 1 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 We’re in the third day, and Elohim has made dry land, but no sun or stars or moon. Still, he’s keen to see something growing, so he tells the land to produce, by spontaneous generation as it was later known, “seed bearing plants and plants bearing fruit with their proper… Read More
Politics On civil disagreement 21 Mar 2009 I am rather old fashioned, which is unsurprising since most of what I read dates from before the invention of the transistor. But I think that one can disagree with someone else without needing to call him an idiot: This is exactly why idiots like Matthew Nisbet, who continually call… Read More