Category: Evolution
Posts about evolution, science, and the philosophy of science
Science vs. religion, evolution vs. creation, “blind watchmaker” vs. “intelligent designer,” and other related debates are a national undercurrent in America. The USA is quite unique among developed nations in that these debates remain, while in most developed nations “science” has “won,” and few people self-report as religious.
The following posts and discussions are intended to offer clarity about how science really works, what evolutionary theory really says, and how these facts impinge upon the plausibility of “supernaturalism” and spirituality.
Conclusions
We’ve done the hard work, so pulling it all together into a single, big-picture argument is now quite easy and straightforward, as follows:
Arguments — We learned what propositions are, that they are statements that can be either true or …
Abstract Objects
We have repeatedly alluded to the notion of abstract objects, as we have talked about, for example, propositions underlying information. As our last point of consideration in this seminar, we will now take a closer look at the necessary existence …
Information Theory Continued
We have settled upon a working definition of “information.” It is: Semantical content intentionally formed and conveyed according to syntactical rules.
We see three primary components of this definition: Syntax (form/structure), semantics (meaning), and intention. Each is a necessary condition …
Introduction to Information Theory
What is information?
At first, that question sounds almost as ridiculous as, “What is light?” or, “What is air?” We are awash in information, like we are awash in light and air. And we have practical, common-sense notions of …
Philosophy of Mind Continued 3
We have briefly introduced and contrasted Humean empiricism and Kantian transcendental idealism. We’ve talked about primary and secondary qualities, and we’ve talked about how that division leads to the Kantian division between “things in themselves” and “appearances.” At this juncture, …
Hume’s Empiricism
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher who is now universally considered preeminent among the so-called “British empiricists.” However, even higher praise comes from Kant himself, who said that Hume “awakened me from my dogmatic slumber.”
“Dogmatic” in Kant’s time …
Introduction to Philosophy of Mind 1
We each have a mind. We know this by simple introspection. Indeed, if we know anything at all, each of us knows: “I think.”
Even the most radical of the Greek skeptics (from which later forms of skepticism arose) did …
Scientism/Naturalism in Crisis
All of these past weeks have been leading up to one conclusion: The naturalistic approach to “explaining” the development of species on Earth is a wholly inadequate account. Like the fossil record itself, the entire neo-Darwinian paradigm is much more …
Punctuated Equilibrium
Here, as in so much of the theorizing we have examined, there is a lot of confusion. The term itself, “punctuated equilibrium,” feels almost “made up,” and even scientists are divided about what the term really means.
But we are …
Dawkins’ Orthodoxy vs. Gould and Eldredge
With all honest evolutionists admitting that there have been no observed speciation events, but with neo-Darwinism hanging on the supposed fact that speciation events do occur, all eyes turn to the fossil record for the “fact of evolution” to be …