Evolution Arseholes! Systematics, phylogenetics and HPS 10 Feb 2011 There’s been some developments this day. First of all a defunct blog on history and philosophy of science has revived with a new skin and as a group blog: AmericanScience: A Team Blog. I keep wanting to say “F&*k yeah!” It used to be the Forum for the History of… Read More
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… Read More
Epistemology Plantinga’s EAAN 31 Jan 201231 Jan 2012 A post now up at the Philosopher’s Carnival discusses Alvin Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN), and comment how it is like (not exactly the same) as a global skepticism argument being self-defeating. Plantinga’s argument goes like this: P1. If evolution is true, then we have modified monkey brains. P2…. Read More
First God tells us that not only is the end of the world nigh, but also upon us, who merely creepeth on the earth. Amidst our wailing and self flagellation, pleading and protestations the end comes. The mind, the world, is blank. Only the void. Then a voice from the heavens comes down. ‘Sorry for the leaky downtime at the end of the universe – bad plug in.’ Oh torture upon torture for our sins. I think I’ll go and sit in my wardrobe for an hour or two.
This is a pity John. More than ninety comments expressing that sentiment within a few days of your announcement. Ninety is surely not “almost zero”, considering that the expectation of visitors to your blog, whether lurkers or commenters, is quality not quantity. There is a malaise abroad in Australia at the moment, at least among those of us who look further afield than the state of a footy team, brought on by the antics of our elected representatives. A general feeling of anger and alienation. I think that this is true, whether you lean to the right or left and I am sure philosophers are not immune. I hope you will reconsider when things improve.