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.
Intro to Philosophy of Science
At long last, we are finally able to start pulling some smaller pieces of the puzzle into some larger, more defined shapes.
For example, given the logical relations we have discussed, we are now able to talk rigorously about one …
Evidence
Everything we have discussed so far in this seminar has been leading to this first fundamentally significant point: We must carefully assess evidence in our decisions of what to believe. We are perpetually assessing evidence, so one of our most …
Rationalism vs. Empiricism
The driving question is: How can we know what the world is really like? At core, philosophy is about metaphysics. If philosophers (and most people) study anything, they study how the world really is! From our simplest questions of how …
A Priori vs. A Posteriori Knowledge
A Priori Knowledge
In a nutshell, the term “a priori” refers to knowledge that is gained logically-prior to, or independent of, experience. Two questions immediately emerge: 1) what exactly do we mean by “experience;” and do we actually …
The Conditional
The Conditional truth table has the most potential to be counterintuitive. Also, the conditional relation is arguably the most fundamental one of all the logical connectives. In fact, in most axiomatic systems, the first axioms are stated as conditionals. So, …
Bivalence
We will employ so-called “classical logic” as we move forward. One of the key defining characteristics of classical logic is that it is bivalent, which means: Two truth values. Obviously, these are true and false.
There are other logics …
Basic Logic
Review of Arguments
We have said that analytic philosophy proceeds via argument analysis. And we have said that both form and content must be carefully and charitably analyzed.
We charitably analyze content by being as crisp and clear about propositional …
W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief
A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. He knew that she was old, and not overwell built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Doubts had been suggested …
The Ethics of Belief
We often say things like, “Well, everybody is entitled to their own opinion.” This is another way of saying, “Well, you can believe whatever you want to believe.”
But are statements like that actually true?
Please read the article by …
Validity and Soundness
The terms, “validity,” and, “soundness,” can only properly be applied to deductive arguments. It is a category error to say that an inductive argument is valid or invalid, or that it is sound or unsound.
The certainty we expect from …