The year in review 21 Dec 200718 Sep 2017 Philosophy isn’t one of those things that makes great breakthroughs that are recognised at the time. Generally something is thought of as a significant development much later, after it becomes obvious that people are engaging with it, like the Chinese Room of John Searle. So instead I will simply list my better posts of this year in a fit of self-aggrandisement. January Bioturbation and Darwin’s worms Another kind of agnosticism The man who invented evolution Species February Dads Darwin on species: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Science and nonscience Theory The many faces of “evolution” Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology The Procrastination Principle [More on procrastination] In praise of scientific ignorance – Claude Bernard Progress, Primitive and Advanced March Water and reduction The Myers Biological Song The topic of the evolution of religion Evolution and accident Allopatry and sympatry Linnaeus on species On myths about Darwin Darwin on the Irish Scientific realism and inference to the best explanation Instruction and information The mystery of mysteries – early naturalistic views of species origins [Whew – I must have been trying to evade some work that month] April On the incoherence of “Darwinism” A Very Bad Idea: Commenting on the VT tragedy Ancestors [Counting ancestors] Literary Darwinism On communication On secularism May Thoughts on history and science In praise of religious tolerance, even for atheists The Secret? Sympathetic magic Types, tokens, genera and species Happy Birthday Linnaeus Linnaeus on species The world according to Genesis: The cosmos June The world according to Genesis: Stuff that grows The world according to Genesis: Humanity Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds, Part 1, part 2, part 3 The world according to Genesis: Moral knowledge The world according to Genesis: Other peoples The world according to Genesis: The Flood The kangaroo is the first organism, but the fungus is not the biggest “Species” in the Stanford Encyclopedia updated The world according to Genesis: Language and society Lewes on heredity in 1856 July Explanation August What is an individual? Popper peeps papally at UD Tolerance and reason Are species theoretical objects? September Theories of speciation The meaning of “life” What is “life”, again? What is “life”, at last The constancy of change and the lack of balance October How not to Feyerabend What evolution is and what it is not (1897) Explaining religion Law, theory, or something else? Explaining religion 2: What is religion? Explaining religion 3: Is it adaptive? November Words and taxa Upstream issues Magnetic anomaly map finished (by guest blogger Chris Nedin) Animals and rights The library of the mind Birds up Explaining religion 4: Wolves and gods Species as objects of explanation Our inner ape The two Wilsons on sociobiology: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 Physicists on science One more thing about Davies The philosophy of classification December Nationalism and evolution Virgin births A personal revelation Do bacteria think? A letter to a high school student Traditions in academe (theology departments) Taking drugs to enhance cognitive performance There you go. Some holiday reading, or rereading if you are one of the six who read this blog regularly. It’s not as sciencey as Catalogue of Organisms, or John Hawks Anthropology Weblog, or the wonderful Tetrapod Zoology, but it’s me. The real me. Confused and scattered… Administrative
Administrative Interesting past few days 9 Feb 20094 Oct 2017 Well, on Thursday night I was incredulous at a lecture by Steve Jones. On Friday night I met the fascinating Richard Grant from Our Competitor Blog Network, Nature Network. On Saturday I had a lovely lunch with my new colleagues at Sydney, and then proceeded to nearly drown while skin… Read More
Administrative Marking time… 10 Mar 201221 Jun 2018 It’s been a busy week (and a painful one: I advise my students to avoiding being old if they can and gout is one reason why – right: gout. This past fortnight has been extremely unpleasant). We are in what we can only hope is the final phase of negotiating… Read More
Administrative Nominate [me] now! 12 Nov 2007 If you really liked one of my posts in the last 12 months, please nominate it for the Open Laboratory anthology for 2007. See the little icon at the left side of the screen? Bora is taking final submissions now. Read More
Thanks John, it’s good to have all this in one spot. Easier to clean up. Just kidding. Have a Merry Christmas. I hope you get to spend time with your kids.
I personally think that your explication of Genesis from June is one of the finest workings of the topic I’ve ever seen, and some of the best writing of yours I know of. I’d love to see a “Wilkins interprets the Bible” sometime… I’d buy it, at least!