History and Historiography 23 Oct 2008 My favourite subject as an undergraduate was Historiography, which covered historical method and the nature of history. I was fortunate to be invited to contribute to the Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography by the editor, Aviezer Tucker, which is being launched in Prague next week. Unfortunately I can’t attend… But I did get to write about Darwin as a contributor to historiography, albeit one who was inadvertently causing a revolution in the way we saw the past rather than a deliberate iconoclast. It looks like a fascinating book and I can’t wait to get my copy. Uncategorized
Uncategorized I can’t handle the Truth 23 Nov 2008 Siris has a nice short post on the use of “truth” in discourse: This appeal to truth is incantatory: it is not an argument but a rhetorical ploy that usually involves a false dichotomy. By ritually displaying one’s ‘interest in the truth’ in contrast with someone else’s interest in something… Read More
Uncategorized Amazing new philosophy resource 30 Jan 2009 David Chalmers and his student David Bourget at the Australian National University have developed a new resource: PhilPapers. This is a hot list to online versions of (so far) over 188,000 items in current philosophy. I checked my own papers and they were all there (something Thompson International seems unable… Read More
Uncategorized The narratives of science journalism 14 Sep 2008 It occurs to me that I don’t have a good list of these, so I invite you all to list and name your favourite science journalism narratives. You know, the sorts of things that journalists must squeeze every science story into, no matter what the actual content. Journalists in general… Read More