Cognition 50 words for snow 3: what are phenomena? 27 Sep 20171 Mar 2019 Series Conceptual confusion The economics of cultural categories What are phenomena? What counts as sociocultural? Species Constructing phenomena Explanations and phenomena If experienced observers are trained to observe natural phenomena in their environment, pace the “interference” of cultural accidents, what is it they observe? As I mentioned before, we are not… Read More
Biology Are species theoretical objects? 27 Oct 201328 Oct 2013 [Note: this is a paper that has sat in my drawer for a while now. I am posting it to follow from my last post on the theological origins of species. If species are not ranks in biology, what are they?] It is often claimed that species are the units… Read More
Epistemology Does philosophy generate knowledge? 2 Sep 20122 Sep 2012 So Larry has responded. Go read it. I’ll wait…. Back? Good. Let me address some of the points there. Not all of them, because most of them I have already addressed in previous posts. I’ll link them at the end of this one. But the most important ones. The first… Read More
Yes, but – what’s the mathematician’s equivalent of the argumentum ad logicam? Just because a proof is wrong doesn’t mean the conclusion’s wrong. Going by that cartoon, circumcision is wrong. Yet, due to this great iteration, passed down from my forefathers[*] through the dim shades of time, I have a ready explanation for every otherwise inexplicable iota of resentment evinced by my 16 year old son. Religion has a purpose, whatever you philosophers say. [*] Yes, that’s right: you always wondered where that term “forefathers” came from.
Yeah, I know: that is a logical, not mathematical proof after all. Sue me, my background’s in the social sciences.