Biology Gilbert White on Instinct: stepping back from Nature 20 Jan 201320 Jan 2013 In the course of helping teach a “History of Nature” course for Sara Maroske just lately, I re-encountered Gilbert White’s lovely Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne, a classic of literature and field biology. As a philosopher I hadn’t read him closely as there is little abstract argument in it, but this… Read More
Evolution Butler’s word games 11 Sep 2009 Gary Nelson recently sent me a paper from G. G. Simpson, published back around 1961: Simpson, GG. 1961. Lamarck, Darwin and Butler, three approaches to evolution. The American Scholar 30 (2):239-249. Unfortunately, this is not online, even through JSTOR, but it’s a wonderful essay, in which Simpson excoriates Samuel Butler’s… Read More
Epistemology How many species concepts are there? 20 Oct 2010 [Note: This is a piece I wrote for Grrlscientist’s blog at the Guardian, Punctuated Equilibrium. I post it here for purposes of record. Please make comments at Grrl’s blog.] It’s an old question in biology: what is a species? Many answers have been given over the years – I counted… 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.