Evolution Supernatural selection: Book review 5 May 2010 I have received a copy of a forthcoming book, Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved by psychologist Matt Rossano. Despite the title, it turns out to be an interesting, although I think ultimately flawed and incomplete, account of religion as a natural process. As I read it, I will do a series… Continue Reading
Biology Legal metaphysics of genes 13 Apr 2010 The recent decision in the NY district court against the breast cancer gene patent held by Myriad has many interesting aspects, but one that was brought to my attention by John Lunstroth is that the court engaged in a metaphysical dispute: are genes physical things or information? Continue Reading
History The best scientific ideas 20 Feb 2010 Over on talk.origins Roger Ebert’s review of The Creation, a film about Darwin’s private life, was mentioned, which starts out Darwin, it is generally agreed, had the most important idea in the history of science. Thinkers had been feeling their way toward it for decades, but it took Darwin to… Continue Reading
Epistemology Sewall Wright on emergence 5 Dec 2009 I came across this passage while looking at the philosophical problem of emergent properties (which I think are purely epistemic). I thought it would be good to put up here… Continue Reading
General Science Computers aren’t science 25 Nov 2009 As I read the science feeds for various sites, I am struck how often people are reporting on computers and computer techniques. News flash: Computers aren’t science, any more than glass blowing is chemistry or addition is physics. Computing is a mathematical technique that uses electronic shortcuts. Computation is an… Continue Reading
Biology Repost: The Song of the Scientist 30 Oct 200918 Sep 2017 I found this on my old blog and liked it so much, I thought I’d replay it: A recent report on the songs of the eponymous “great tit”, a common forest bird famous for learning to peck the foil tops of milk bottles in the 1950s, shows that they independently… Continue Reading
Biology On gods and religion 14 Oct 2009 I have just had a very pleasant meeting of the minds with Justin Barrett here in Oxford, who gave me some of his time. We agreed on a lot, and this has set me thinking that I should document some of the claims I intend to make in my research,… Continue Reading
Evolution Tautology 6: A resolution 3 Sep 200922 Jun 2018 If, as Byerly and Michod think, along with many others such as Brandon (1990), there are two kinds of “fitness”; actual and expected, and only with actual fitness is there any possibility of a tautology, we need to work out what expected fitness is. Brandon calls it “adaptedness” proper; a… Continue Reading
Epistemology Quark Philosophy Blog Awards 3 Sep 200918 Sep 2017 Yes, you can vote for your favourite philosophy blog entry. In addition to a certain immodest antipodean ape, there are a number of other interesting posts I have bolded in the list beneath the fold. You choose. No pressure… Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design The tautology problem 20 Aug 2009 A long time ago I wrote a not particularly good piece on the tautology problem: that natural selection is merely circular definition. I was just out of being an undergraduate when it was published, so it was at best an undergraduate piece. I have been unsatisfied with it ever since…. Continue Reading