Terminological exaptitude 19 May 201119 May 2011 Lately, advocates of experimental philosophy have been calling it X-Phi. What with connotations of Mulder and Scully, that’s rather cool. Then, I saw a site on mathematical philosophy call itself M-Phi. So it follows that what I do, the philosophy of science, has to be called Sci-Phi… What do we call philosophical theology? Theo-Phi? Suggestions? Later: Ah! My intertubes are back! I will do a substantive post sometime soon, just after I finish all that marking… Humor Philosophy Science
Evolution Homology 16 Jun 2010 In a recent Nature, R. John Ellis, author of How Science Works, takes exception to Eugenie Scott’s review and says this about her use of “homology”: The word was invented in 1843 by anatomist Richard Owen to mean “the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and… Read More
Epistemology A quote on the ethics of belief 31 Aug 2010 Sometimes philosophers nail it. This from James McGrath: And no one man’s belief is in any case a private matter which concerns himself alone. Our lives are guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes. Our words, our phrases,… Read More
Philosophy Defining religion 27 Oct 2009 In line with my putting passing thoughts down as they occur to me, in this post I will discuss some of the questions regarding how to define religion such that it becomes an explicandum for natural accounts of religion. Read More
Hah! I hit submit, the site refreshed and there was the same suggestion of Dei Phi. Great minds think alike!
I’m more concerned with the philosophy of evolution: it must be e-phil, but then that’s what the creationists have been saying for a while…
How about Dog Phi A synonym for Theology is Dogma The advantage of this is that partially dsylexic philosophers would easily understand it
Which leads directly into the joke What do dyslexic, insomniac, agnostics do at night? Lay awake wondering if there is a Dog!
?Philosophy of Theology? … Why, PhilThe, of course. [Sorry, the department of bad puns just lost a major grant.] Good luck with grading!
Ah, but when will Experimental Theology appear on university timetables? Let’s see those gods in action! Whoops, correct the punctuation and spacing for scientific readers: let’s see those gods’ inaction! Or does that risk the forced renaming of university departments to become Department of Atheology?