I’m a 3QD Philosophy Prize semifinalist 12 Sep 201122 Jun 2018 You no longer can vote for me, but I made the cut for this post on phenomena, so I think you should go read some cool philosophy posts while we wait for the editors to pick six entries to send to Pat Churchland for a final judgement… So, this being the closest thing to any kind of award I have ever received, I must show this badge: Administrative Philosophy
Biology The Velvet Underground of… 8 Oct 2010 Recently there have been a couple of “Velvet Underground” posts, of the kind that the VU were a very unknown but amazingly influential group. As Chad Orzel says, “only of order a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every one of them went on to start a… Read More
Philosophy Philosophy TV 2 Sep 2010 We’ve had bloggingheads.tv, and wotnot, but now we have hit the motherload; the real thing! Philosophy TV! Not enough philosophy of science yet, but subscribe in the hope… Read More
Epistemology Classic quotes: Hume 30 Sep 2010 You propose then, Philo, said Cleanthes, to erect religious faith on philosophical scepticism; and you think, that if certainty or evidence be expelled from every other subject of enquiry, it will all retire to these theological doctrines, and there acquire a superior force and authority. Whether your scepticism be as… Read More
Someone by the name of John Wilkins made a document titled A deflationary account of information in biology openly available on the web. I’ve been out of touch with research and the literature for 15+ years now. Perhaps I wasn’t very good when I was more deeply involved . Nevertheless … I am fascinated by the concept ‘biological Information’. It has been my more or less, on and off preoccupied theme-of-interest for several decades. (Seeking out Lila Gatlin’s work on the information content of DNA is what lead me to finding Wilkins’s manuscript.) Your manuscript holds me speechless sir. Even though I cannot bring myself to read it at the present moment because it is immediately strongly emotive and confusing. …. too much so to be useful for me … Despite all such, I immediately saw that document as touching upon and addressing, many if not all of the pertinent and essential qualities of ‘information’ and it’s relationship to biological process. Notwithstanding my own limited scholarship and dated knowledge … I cannot recall any other author or ‘theoretical biologist’ matching your complete and explicitly targeted engagement. That achievement of recognizing and engaging all that is prominent and appropriate is a sufficient and remarkable achievement, in and of by itself. You have earned my admiration. Thank you
I was over in Europe while this was going on, and am still trying to catch up with the Internet. When I have time (which may be before or after I am dead), I intend to read all 37 nominees for the prize so that I can find out which I would have voted for if I had voted, so that I can tell you, so that you can cast aspersions upon my sanity for my poor taste. Meanwhile I’m also reading the copy of “Lucian: Selected Dialogues” that I bought at the British Library (actually, my bookmark has been sitting patiently at page 74 for some time now). My comment so far is that the poor guy would have been a far better writer if only someone had had the foresight to lend him some Pratchett.