Empirical investigation: you can’t beat it!
31
Jan
Category Archives: science and reason
Trump on torture: more bad thinking
27
Jan
Another post dedicated to bad thinking, it being a year and a day since my last one. Yesterday’s Independent ran this piece. Having approved in ways active and passive Obama’s bombing the middle east every day for eight years, promoted … Read More »
Robert Hooke
20
Feb
But for certain misfortunes, Robert Hooke would surely have been among the most celebrated of Englishmen. He invented air bellows for Boyle, built telescopes and microscopes, discovered stars and advanced our understanding of planetary orbit. He taught himself illustration for … Read More »
Truth matters
11
Feb
[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end] Saturday, Feb 7. The third unsourced statistic on this FB post is almost certainly false: [/ezcol_1half_end] Two days later an American friend, Daniel, posted his disgust at a homophobic quote allegedly by Ted Cruz. But others say it … Read More »
More bad thinking
26
Jan
After my post on the MMR vaccine I had this reply from the originator of the thread: You are an academic Phil, to be blunt you have been brainwashed. I was fortunate enough to escape that. Do you see the … Read More »
MMR and bad thinking
20
Jan
[ezcol_1third]I stumbled on an anti-MMR discussion on FB last night. Couldn’t resist sticking my oar in of course. Human beings have wonderful brains but, untrained, we are hopeless at stats and not much better at any kind of rigorous thinking. … Read More »
Do materialists meditate?
18
Jan
I don’t believe an intelligent force is guiding evolution. I do believe, pace Marx, that the ways humans organise themselves to produce and reproduce the material conditions of existence – rather than ideas of any kind, let alone metaphysical ones … Read More »
Climate Change and Fortress Europe
12
Dec
Listening to the news from Paris these past few days I, like so many Britons, think of climate change as a terrible possibility which may or may not materialise: an appalling possibility we learn to live with, like the threat … Read More »
Shoulders of giants
27
Jul
Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination … Select only things that speak to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. Film Director, Jim Jarmusch When Motown … Read More »
Men, women and genetics
7
May
Feminists know this but it’ll stand repeating. Since one male can impregnate many females, societies can afford to lose more men than women. It takes all sorts to make a world and any healthy society, from hunter-gatherer onward, will contain … Read More »