New SEP article on innateness 7 Aug 2009 Speaking of Paul Griffiths, who were were just a little while back, he has a new essay up at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Distinction between Innate and Acquired Characteristics. This is a crucial issue in biology, psychology, and even the law and social science. So this is a welcome resource. I strongly recommend it, and not just because he’s my colleague. Biology Genetics Philosophy Science
Epistemology Tautology 4: What is a tautology? 26 Aug 2009 So, what is the problem, philosophically speaking, with something in science being a tautology? Read More
Epistemology Does teleology hang on in Venice? 18 Dec 201022 Jun 2018 Here’s an interesting paper, which I haven’t had time to digest, but which I thought I’d better mention before it enters the fog my brain contains these days… It’s by David Depew, one of my favourite philosophical writers on evolution (in no small part because he takes a historical approach… Read More
Evolution Evolution quotes: Darwin on randomness 25 Jun 2010 Some authors have declared that natural selection explains nothing, unless the precise cause of each slight individual difference be made clear. Now, if it were explained to a savage utterly ignorant of the art of building, how the edifice had been raised stone upon stone, and why wedge-formed fragments were… Read More