So much to say, so little time 9 Jul 2009 As I prepare for the conferences I start attending and blathering at from tomorrow, I of course find a treasure trove of things to blog about. Since I can’t really do them all justice, I will merely put a one liner for each below the fold. Mark Pallen’s paper on the myth of Annie’s death causing Darwin’s atheism is now up online. Read it; it’s a marvellous piece of detective work. What he doesn’t say is that what motivates the myth is the notion of some historians that people don’t actually make their intellectual decisions for intellectual reasons, whereas he is taking Darwin more or less at his word. Bite Size Biology has a nice piece on the underappreciated and overdemonised Haeckel. Epiphenom discusses the inverse relationship between a nation’s “social health” and its religiosity. AK’s Rambling Thoughts has a very nice discussion of the origin and meaning of “central nervous system”. My hero Frans de Waal attacks “anthropodenial” – the claim that humans are nothing at all like animals in cognition, in a letter in Nature which is unfortunately behind a paywall. Tim Leonard has more on Hofstadter’s attack on “social Darwinism” at History of Economics Playground. And Anne-Marie Hodge at Endless Forms has a piece on a hybrid salamander that is supplanting the local native species because, among other things, it eats the young of that native species. Have fun. I’ll blog from the conferences when I can. Biology Evolution History Philosophy Science Social evolution Species and systematics Species concept Systematics
Creationism and Intelligent Design The origin of “intelligent design” in the 18th and 19th centuries 9 Nov 20139 Nov 2013 A question asked on the talk.origins group by reader Garamond Lethe led me to do some reading and writing, which I do below the fold. He asked: I’m looking for an article that detailed the history of the term “intelligent design” prior to its use by the DI. I have… Read More
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? Read More
History The historical way to do science 2 Oct 2010 A review of two history of science books in History Today starts out The story of science is Whig history. We are forever cherry-picking the routes by which we came to our present understanding of the world – and the implication is always the same: our current grasp is final,… Read More
Thanks for the plug. I’m hopeful that this one, and the companion piece on Cnidarians, will shake the tree a bit regarding evolutionary paradigms.
re: the Pallen link, there’s a very good essay by Proust, Contre Sainte-Beuve (Against Sainte-Beuve, for those with even less French than me) that attacks the whole idea that you can know more about a text by knowing about the author and his life. Proust attacks Sainte-Beuve (and the Goncourts) pretty vehemently for basing their lit crit on cosy little chats with salon authors, and bits of literary gossip. Looked for an online version, but can’t find any. There’s a good English edition available in print though.