The evolution of the nervous system 19 Sep 2009 Nature Reviews Neuroscience has a special issue out on the evolution of the nervous system. Good for them as has access… Evolution
Creationism and Intelligent Design Is history a science? Creationists don’t think so 4 Sep 20134 Sep 2013 I received a query by email recently from Jennifer, an MD. Dear Dr. Wilkins, I’m wondering if you had the time if you could perhaps steer me in the right direction of help me understand the philosophy behind the argument of creationist use to negate the theory of evolution saying… Read More
Evolution Popper peeps papally at UD 15 Aug 2007 Popper’s view of science has been supplanted by a number of later views, not least being the sociological accounts of Kuhn and Lakatos, which, being sociological, don’t tell us what is science but only how it proceeds descriptively. Prescriptive views of science are much more nuanced than Popper these days, and they lack a simple slogan like the cry of “falsifiability!” They typically focus on the heuristics (rules of inference) and how they have developed overall and in particular disciplines. If you want to argue that ID is science, go read van Fraassen, or Hacking, or Giere, or Laudan and get back to me. Read More
Biology My presentation on Mercier and Sperber’s Argumentative Theory 11 Jul 201222 Jun 2018 During my recent trip to Berkeley, I was asked to give a discussion starter about Mercier and Sperber’s recent Behavioral and Brain Sciences article on the function reasoning has been given by evolution. They broadly argue that reasoning is not an internal process and evolved with its “main function” as convincing others of what… Read More
Should be an interesting read. I’ve been reading up quite a bit on CNS evo-devo. It is an intereting case study in how evo-devo has brought evolutionary narratives back into the fore. Few seem to be asking if this is really the best thing evo-devo has to offer.