The difference between the name and the thing 9 Sep 2009 Sometimes, comics do philosophy: Humor Philosophy
Biology Couple of my recent papers 7 Aug 2009 These are under review, so any useful comments will be helpful still. What is it to be an atheist? [Revision 5.2] Essentialism and natural kinds in biology Read More
Epistemology Dynamics and classification redux 7 Aug 2010 In my last two posts in this series, I suggested that science is a field of possible moments, with no set trajectory over what I called the “dance floor of science”. Some commentators have objected to this, arguing that there is no real difference between classification and theory building. I… Read More
History On Grayling on the Jesuits 23 Aug 2009 A long time ago I would debate the local Jesuits over scotch, when I was still a Christian theology student. I learned two things: 1. those guys could really hold their liquor (I drank much more sparingly); and 2. Jesuits are really really smart. But as a theolog, I also… Read More
Richard Feynman put it well, also (paraphrasing): You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.