Groves on the species concept 13 Sep 2009 Colin Groves, the primatologist from the ANU who does a lot of systematics, has an interview on the topic of species here at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show “Ockham’s Razor”. The podcast will be up in due course. One thing I must dispute with Colin is that there even is a phylogenetic species concept. But that’s for another day… Late note: Listen to the show here. Species concept Systematics
Biology Did Popper and Quine invent “Aristotelian essentialism”? 7 Feb 201221 Jun 2018 There are many narratives told about evolution. One of the most widely told is the Essentialism Story, replayed in textbook, popular storytelling and philosophy alike. It goes like this: Before Darwin, biologists were constrained by essentialist thinking, in which they were committed to species being natural kinds where there were… Read More
Book A positive review 12 Dec 2009 This is the first review of my book actually published that I know of. If anyone else sees one, let me know, OK? Review by Diane Beechinor at National Science Teachers Association. Read More
Cognition How not to give a keynote 6 Jul 201222 Jun 2018 So we finally managed to get things going for the Poland keynote. It took over half an hour to get the sound working, after a fashion, and the connection was blocky at best. The hardest part was that I kept trying to hear what people were saying at the other… Read More
“One thing I must dispute with Colin” Why do some bloggers use the first names of the authors of papers/articles or the person being interviewed? Is it not conventional to use just the last name or both when discussing a colleague’s work? As well, Jerry Coyne tends to use first names: “According to Richard, both he and Armstrong were commissioned to write on the topic. . . .” whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/dawkins-17-armstrong-0/
it depends, I think, on whether they are known personally to you or not. People I know I tend to use their first name.