Understanding Species is here in hard copy 19 Apr 202319 Apr 2023 When I first watched Back to the future, I was mid-undergraduate studies, and had no thought that I would ever publish anything, but I was taken by Grispin Glover’s George McFly getting a box of what looked like 50 copies of his latest novel. The most I have ever gotten for any of my books was nine: things are less generous now than in the 80s, I guess. Also, academic books are orders of magnitude lower in numbers than commercial fiction. Still, the hard copies for any book are treasured, and thus I reveal to you: The interesting thing is that this is a compact size, around A5, which I guess is the thing now, what with Very Short Introductions to topics and so on. It’s still only £14.99/US$19.99, (AUS$28.95) so go get a copy. I think the price goes up in May. As a teaser, here’s a figure illustrating what different definitions of species do to our own species: Philosophy
Philosophy A poignant obituary 18 Apr 2009 Geoffrey Midgley’s obit is in the Independent today. A comment online is, I suspect, from one of his sons. Read More
Epistemology A quote on the ethics of belief 31 Aug 2010 Sometimes philosophers nail it. This from James McGrath: And no one man’s belief is in any case a private matter which concerns himself alone. Our lives are guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes. Our words, our phrases,… Read More
Biology A new philosophy and biology journal 11 Dec 2009 Massimo Pigliucci has just announced Philosophy & Theory in Biology, a new online open access journal. Its stated mission is to bring “together philosophers of science and theoretically inclined biologists to interact across disciplinary boundaries. This interaction fosters a broad conception of what it means to do “theory” in science… Read More