Philosophy
clock | November 28, 2007
When Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word "gene" back in 1909 (hmmm, less than two years until the Centennial), the word was quite unambiguous - it meant "a unit of heredity". Its material basis, while widely speculated on, was immaterial for its usefulness as a concept. It could have been tiny little Martians inside the cells, it would have been OK, as they could have been plugged into the growing body of mathematics describing the changes and properties of genes in populations. In other words, gene referred to a concept that can be mathematically and experimentally studied without a…
jstemwedel | November 28, 2007As promised, I want to take a look at this article (discussed also at Corpus Callosum). I'm not a psychologist, so I won't have much to say about what causes might underlie the phenomenon of do-gooders doing bad. However, I will have some words (from the point of view of someone concerned with practical ethics) about how this pitfall might be avoided.
From the article:
[O]ften in life, the line between right and wrong becomes blurry, particularly when it comes to cheating on a test or in the workplace. For example, somebody could rationalize cheating on a test as a way of achieving their…
jstemwedel | November 27, 2007This is not breaking news (unless your news cycle is more geological), but it strikes me as relevant on the day that I deliver my penultimate lecture in the newly-created ethics module in the Introduction to Engineering class at my university:
Can you trust an ethicist to behave ethically?
Eric Schwitzgebel and Joshua Rust asked other philosophers, who presumably have a good bit of data on the everyday conduct of professional ethicists. The majority seemed to think that ethicists were no more ethical in their behavior than are other sorts of philosophers.
Brian Leiter suggested that a finer…
jstemwedel | November 24, 2007This New York Times op-ed, to be precise. My questions for Paul Davies can be boiled down to these two:
What kinds of explanations, precisely, are you asking science to deliver to you?
Just why do you think it is the job of science to provide such explanations?
Let's back up a little and look at some of what Davies writes in his op-ed:
... science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. You couldn't be a scientist if you thought the universe was a meaningless jumble of odds and ends haphazardly…
sb admin | November 23, 2007This Friday is a holiday (in America, at least) and what's better on a holiday than a rerun? Yay for reruns. So, I've written about the Amygdaloids before, but here's an introduction video in case you didn't see it (or want to enjoy it again). Also, this band of rockin' cognitive scientists has a CD available now.
The Amygdaloids: Live concert at Union Hall
Preview their new CD here (buy it here) alongside descriptions of each brain-based song.
"Past lovers often leave strong and enduring memories. 'A Trace' tells a story about this. Memory researchers in the know will figure out that the…
mixingmemory | November 4, 2007
So there's a Behavioral and Brain Sciences paper in press on the cognitive differences between human and nonhuman animals that is related, in some ways, to my own work (it even cites me twice... yay, the citation count for that paper just jumped to, like, 4). The paper is sure to be controversial for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the title, but I'm fairly convinced by its arguments. But I'm not really writing this post to talk about the article. When it's published, with all its peer commentaries (BBS publishes target articles and then a bunch of peer commentaries, along…
neurophilosophy | October 25, 2007David Chalmers, a professor of philosophy at the Australian National University and director of the Center for Consciousness, has just announced the launch of MindPapers, an online database of papers about the philosophy of mind.
The database is very comprehensive indeed - it includes about 18,000 published and online papers, subdivided into sections such as the philosophy of neuroscience, perception, synaesthesia, language and thought and vegetative states, coma and the minimally conscious state (which are disorders of consciousness).
clock | October 18, 2007Three good talks at Duke this Fall:
This year's series explores how advances in neuroscience, genomics, robotics, and artificial intelligence are not only changing our conception of what it is to be human but also creating possibilities for changing 'human nature' in fundamental ways.
Monday, October 29, 2007 - 5:00 pm
Love Auditorium, Levine Science Research Center
How are we to think about Human Nature?Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy
University of Cambridge
Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 4:00 pm
Biological Sciences Building, Room 111
Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains…
laelaps | October 17, 2007"Thinking again?" the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp little chin.
"I've a right to think," said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried.
"Just about as much right," said the Duchess, "as pigs have to fly...."
[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9]
It seems that creationists/ID advocates aren't the only folks discontented with Darwin's theory of natural selection, as I have been hearing murmurings that some scientists are considering genetic changes to be far more important to evolution. It's been difficult to find details about this "phantom menace…
neurophilosophy | October 5, 2007Philosophers Andrew Brook and Pete Mandik provide an uncorrected proof of their paper, The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement, which is to be published in a forthcoming special issue of Analyse & Kritic.
The paper gives an overview of how philosophy has increasingly been applied to neuroscience, and vice versa, over the past 25 years, during which time a small group of people from each discipline has become dedicated to contributing to the other.
The work of this neurophilosophy movement has involved integrating the philosophy of mind with the science of brain in order to gain a…
voltagegate | October 4, 2007
Heather just finished her self portrait assignment in printmaking, and while others studied pictures of their faces from all angles, she picked up a cell bio text and studied other aspects of self. Her rationale and a few of my thoughts about science and art are below the fold.
I thought her statement was both insightful and poetic:
I am an animal. I am a human. I come from a long branching line of beings, descending in a progression from prehistoric, mammalian, ancestors. Before those ancestral creatures, existed an even longer, and more branched, line of prehistoric plant, and bacterial…
clock | October 2, 2007Galilei kicked us out of the Center of the Universe.
Darwin kicked us off the Pinnacle of Creation
Freud kicked the Soul out of our Brains.
Few remain adherents of Geocentrism.
The opponents of evolution are legion and very vocal (in this country, and a couple of Middle Eastern ones), but they have been defeated so soundly so many times, they had to concede more and more ground, and though they are getting sneakier with time, their efforts are becoming more and more laughable and pitiful.
So, the last Big Fight will be about the Soul. The next area of science to experience a big frontal…
neurotopia | October 1, 2007Recently Orac took apart the findings of another acupuncture study. Those who administer acupuncture typically insinuate that a mysterious vital energy known as "chi" travels along meridians in the body, and that normal flow of chi is necessary for good health. Orac pointed out that this recent study effectively disproved the notion of meridians in traditional Chinese medicine.
Similar woo also permeates the martial arts. If one's chi is properly aligned, supposedly the practitioner can make their body do amazing things such as selectively exploding an opponent's internal organs when…
jrosenhouse | September 17, 2007Okay, I'm back. Prison Break seems to be off to a rip-roaring, if extremely implausible, start. Guess I'll keep watching. I've followed it for this long, I suppose I should hang around to find out what happens to these guys. Really, though, I'm just marking time to the season premiere of House next week.
Towards that end, have a look this interesting article from The New York Times. It discusses a new book called The Happiness Hypothesis, by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, that discusses the evolution of morality:
Where do moral rules come from? From reason, some…
clock | September 14, 2007BBC reports that scientists working in the UK government have adopted a Scientific Ethics Code, written by Professor Sir David King. Here is the Code:
Act with skill and care, keep skills up to date
Prevent corrupt practice and declare conflicts of interest
Respect and acknowledge the work of other scientists
Ensure that research is justified and lawful
Minimise impacts on people, animals and the environment
Discuss issues science raises for society
Do not mislead; present evidence honestly
Several bloggers have responded to this. Here is Janet's take:
They seem like quite sensible…
clock | September 14, 2007Unfortunately, due to the Murphy's Law of conference dates, I will have to miss this fantastic meeting, because I will at the time be at another fantastic meeting, but if you can come, please do - registration will be open online in a few days.
Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity
The conference theme is about bringing scientists and humanities scholars to talk about ways that science is changing human life.
November 8th, 9th, and 10th, the National Humanities Center will host the second ASC conference.
And the program features a Who's Who list:
Thursday, November 8th
Frans de Waal
Martha…
kcontreary | September 9, 2007Who knew anybody, much less the Economist had an opinion on whether or not Belgium should exist?
One question: if Belgium goes through a 'velvet' divorce, who gets custody of the chocolate?
jstemwedel | August 21, 2007In the aftermath of the ScienceBloggers' assault on Manhattan, Mark Chu-Carroll put up a nice post on the ways in which bloggers' real-life manner seemed to match or depart from their online personae.
Maybe philosophy's to blame, but I think there's a deep and interesting question here.
Mark writes:
It's quite an odd experience in its way; between our blogs, and our back-channel forums, we've become a tight-knit community, and the people there were my friends, even though I'd never seen them before.
And yet, as is clear from Mark's blogger-specific observations, there are ways in which a…
clock | August 15, 2007John Wilkins just published a paper (..."a review of the centenary festschrift for Mayr...") and got a book accepted for publication (the book grew out of series of excellent blog posts about species definitions - who says that blogging is bad for your health?)
Congratulations!
jstemwedel | August 15, 2007As I mentioned in my last post, I was sucked out of the blogosphere for much of last week by the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC) 2007 Summer Symposium .
I did not live-blog the conference. I did use overheads. Why, other than being a tremendous Luddite, would I use overheads?
One big issue that has me using overheads rather than PowerPoint presentations is time. As many conferences are, this one was scheduled within an inch of its life. Each speaker had 20 minutes to talk and 5 minutes at the end for questions and answers. Indeed, if the previous speaker…