The meaning of truth at a world
New Yorker on Hitchens and atheism.
The Ethics of Santa Claus tales
Latest Philosopher's Carnival. Once again I didn't prepare a post which I feel bad about because the last carnival was so great with technical posts.
2cd Annual Online Philosophy Conference
More on inaccuracies in that new Mountain Meadows Massacre film. Voight's defense? "When we're dealing with a film, we're dealing with a metaphor of some sort."
More on the bee problem. Judging by my front lawn today we're not having a problem here. But it's surprising that scientists have been investigating the problem this long now without any real strong evidence for a culprit.
Is Wikipedia too pedantic? Personally I enjoy reference materials written to a college rather than High School level. That's not my complaint about Wikipedia -- accuracy is.
Is psychotherapy superstition? I don't know if it is superstition, but it is certainly pseudo-science in my opinion.
Panel suggests controlling global warming would cost only 0.2% - 0.3% GDP. Of course that's a big tax when you think of it. And the giant in the room isn't the US, it's India and China.
Quote of Brigham Young's twisted in September Dawn and repeated by Robert Novak. You'd think Novak would do a modicum of fact checking.
Duck on Clarity and Brandon weighs in as well. (Edit: fixed link)
Sage: an open source Mathematica competitor. Python based, which is very nice. The UI looks a bit weak though. (It uses your browser) I'll try it out and give a review. It might be the thing for us mathematical weekend warriors.
Longevity gene found? I'm sure there will be lots of nuance to this. I'll post the links that go beyond the popular media. This is the gene tied to the effects of caloric restriction and longevity.
Indiana University Press is having a big sale. Free shipping on orders over $25 and a lot of good prices on philosophy texts.
String theory textbooks. Including one for undergrads. It's been too long since I've done my mathematical physics. I have a lot to review. Someday...
Heidegger on Space. A new book, Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World. Also at Heideggaerian Denken.
Ardis Parshall on Bagley on the Mountain Meadows Massacre. (Part of the abundant discussion all over Mormon blogs of last night's PBS special on Mormons)
When to use Standard Deviation (SD) as opposed to Standard Error (SE) or a Confidence Interval (CI)?
Mental health commitments in America. It's amazing how little mental health infrastructure there is. Prisons replaced asylums. (Not that the asylums of the day were good)
What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia? "...the most likely candidate is a meningioma of the right optic nerve" (HT: The Valve)
Hitchens interview on religions (Drops the bomb a lot have been discussing: that Karl Rove is an atheist) He also has a series of anti-religious polemics at Slate that includes a critique of Mormonism. Hitchens is a rabble-rouser but I confess I often enjoy reading him.
Plants not significant source of atmospheric methane
The inseparability of thinking and feeling. I've long thought this but then I'm a Peircean. Mood and emotion are unfortunately neglected or devalued in much of philosophy as well. (IMO) (HT: Frontal Cortex)
Retired football players and depression. They only talk NFL, but from my experience it applies to college players who don't make the NFL as well.
Non-endorsement of religion. Interesting post by Brandon on separation of Church in the US.
Very cool spelling corrector for OSX and Google
How music makes you feel good. Pretty interesting study. (As is the tangent about riots) I'd like to see this study applied to Jazz.
Dogs interpret when learning tricks. They don't just mimic.
Long term and short term memory: more interrelated than thought
Medical ethics and the problem of defining personhood
Science, hype, and self-criticism. A take down of mirror-neuron hype as well.
Fair use, science journals and blogs. I think this is a last gasp of Journals to keep their monopoly on scientific discourse and charge frankly ridiculous prices for journal access. Everyone should shift to the physics model of free and open repositories. Doing otherwise is really anti-science.
46th Philosopher's Carnival. This looks to be the best one in some time. Comments later.
Interesting story of a school shooter subdued by armed students in 2002. I remember that but didn't realize the students stopped the guy because they were armed.
Hidden Variable theory falsified?
Learning, memory and sleep. Being among the sleep deprived I can confirm this.
Duck Rabbit on the latest Leiter bit on Continental Philosophy
Shakespeare being cut? I think there's a difference between not requiring a class for a major and not offering it. I'd lay big bets that at most these campuses shakespeare is still an oft attended class. Given the way English majors work, I honestly can see not focusing in on them for some tracks. Sort of like engineers don't need to take QM. I guess it depends upon your philosophy of the major.
Razib on Levels of analysis of religion, Atran, Boyer & Wilson. I've have to confess I've not read Wilson. If you're not up on cog-sci and religion this is a good post.
Stephen Colbert on Mormon leaders. I found that the Colbert parody of O'Reilley got old and prefer The Daily Show's opening monologue. But this is pretty funny. Here's the video. (HT: AML)
Is religious belief sensitive to evidence?
Did Nietzsche use a typewriter?
SEP on Thomas of Erfurt. An important figure commented upon by both Peirce and Heidegger (who thought his writings were by Duns Scotus).
NPDR review of Justification Without Awareness: A Defense of Epistemic Externalism. I enjoyed Knowledge and Its Limits despite finding most of the arguments highly problematic. I've heard Bergmann's is far superior to Williamson's though.
Williamson's anti-Luminosity argument. I confess I don't find Williamson persuasive in the least on this point. That despite agreeing with the position he is defending.
Geometrogenesis. Cool new word relating to the emergence of space/time from a pre-geometric theory of interacting quantum systems.
Abstract art is back. Can I confess that it's always been my favorite kind of painting?
Slate on Wittgenstein. Surprisingly little about philosophy.
Music doesn't make your kids smarter
Women ogle more than men. Puts to rest that myth that men are visual sexually whereas women aren't.
Martin Gardner reviews Smolin and Woit's anti-string books
Great old review of the Da Vinci Code from Language Log. (HT: Daring Fireball)
In weight loss glycemic load had no significant effect. Quite the opposite of what has been promoted the past few years. It's the old, "eat less, exercise more" rule which everyone seems to hate.
Why Mathematics is boring. Very interesting comments.
Nice debate about the second half of On Grammatology. (The comments, not the post which seems to me to involve a lot of misunderstandings) I'd add that "sign of a sign" ends up being Peirce's semiotics. So the Peircean sign is the Derridean trace.
Many Liberals (rightly) point to many Conservatives rejecting scientific consensus. Reason notes the other ideology overruling science. (Of course not all or even most Liberals are anti-GM)
I'm going to make this whole website right now on this dry-erase board
Framing science. Depending upon what one means I tend to be skeptical of a lot of "framing" claims. While I've not read the Science article, I do think we all could do a better better in terms of how science is explained. But I also agree that some people focus on changing the structure of how the public understands is perhaps premature.
Antibiotics in children with sore throats. Apparently most of the organisms causing the problems aren't touched by antibiotics.
I doubt we can draw much by way of implication but people who believe in reincarnation tend to have more false memories.
Nice critique of the problems of Foucalt's history of madness. A new translation of the original French version is available. The version most have is a truncated version.
New Tolkein book. Looks like taking rough notes to make some money to me. But what do I know? I didn't like the Silimarillion either.
What is wrong and what is right about Wittgenstein's view of religion.
If you are in Utah don't forget about the SMPT Conference March 22-24 at BYU. (I had a post here) I got sick and didn't make it to Thursday's or Friday's sessions but I'll be there tomorrow and will bring some chocolate.
Rebuttal to a global warming "expose" that was on Channel 4 in the UK. A lot of folks have been talking about it so this is probably a good link to note.
The Lancet says alcohol is worse than narcotics. It advocates a new framework for classifying harmful substances. Long overdue IMO.
What is a Lie Group? Nice summation of the E8 Lie Group that's been in the news.. I still remember my disappointment when I took abstract algebra as an undergraduate and we never covered Lie groups. I had to read up on them on my own. But they are crucial in a lot of physics. For those not familiar with Lie Groups here's the Wiki and this is a nice overview (although it doesn't cover all Lie groups).
Relation between heart rate regulation and ones ability to resist temptation.
I can't figure out if this is cool, creepy, or what. Scientists put a human gene in mice and get mice who see in color. It is fascinating that mammal brains are that flexible though.
Diversity within institutions vs. diversity across institutions. While I favor diversity I also think having some universities emphasizing aspects that are "lost" in typical university is a good idea.
Very interesting discussion of Stoicism and the military. With a little 24 thrown in to boot.
Biology making ethics or philosophy making ethics? Interesting summary of the current issues in the NYT.
Are doctor's taught critical thinking? This is a good reason why its important to find a good doctor you get to know. And also why its good not to trust doctors too much. (i.e. ask questions yourself)
New meta-study claims God does answer prayers. I'm dubious. Not of God answering prayers but of studies finding that he does. Even this study doesn't show a sufficiently significant impact though.
Strong silent "masculine" men get better better.
GM mosquitoes to fight malaria. I haven't decided how I feel about this - there's a part of me that is uneasy.
Does exercise makes you smarter?
After several months of waiting our chocolate can finally be purchased. I wrote a bit upon this over at Kulturblog.
Low-dose exposures to phthalates and other common chemicals may be reducing testosterone levels or function in men, and thereby contributing to rising obesity rates and an epidemic of related disorders. It's a common chemical found in everything from plastics to soaps.
Physicists versus neuroscients. First time I've seen physicists praised for humility. (LOL) Usually we're getting grief for being know-it-alls.
I'm a week behind in my podcast listening. I just found out Penn Radio has been cancelled. I love that show. Old shows are still on iTunes.
Misuse of models. Interesting discussion of models such as climate models at American Scientist.
After Blanchot. One of those philosophers whom seems forever on my "to read" list.
Trying to enter text with accents or other characters and they don't come out right? Try wide character converter. Part of the problem is that character sets vary between platforms and most people don't set the HTML character set header correctly.
Perceived attractiveness driven by link between gender, gender-specific roles
Difficulties with Davidson's account of action. Part 1.. This is critique of the early Davidson. I have several books of the latter Davidson coming. I'll admit I'm fairly unversed on his later thought. So I'll be commenting on Davidson in the forthcoming months again. (I hope)
Great essay by Tyler Cowen on libertarianism and problems like global warming. This kind of "pragmatic" libertarianism is much more something I can accept.
Speaking of Vallicella's paper, the graduate class which had it up has up more than a dozen other papers worth downloading. Including a response to Vallicella.
The Conservative Persuasion: An Interview with George H. Nash. (Part 1 and Part 2)
Toddlers learn better when the figure it out themselves
How Can the Scientific Community Reorganize to Improve Communication? Ultimately the problem is the mass media. (IMO) Although sometimes the scientific community doesn't exactly help when they demonize those who disagree with them out of ignorance. Also Things that are effective but dangerous in the quest for science literacy..
Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils. (HT: John Hawks)
Interesting story of Billy Cottrell. I remember when he was defacing all those SUVs for "ecological reasons." I tend to agree that labeling folks as terrorists has gotten out of hand. This guy deserved time but not the treatment he received. (HT: Not Even Wrong)
Carnival of Mathematics 3. I wish I had time to keep up on all these carnivals. I've only read a handful of these thus far. My favorite was fun with π.
Blogging: Mormon scholarship versus dissemination". Interesting riff at T&S off a comment by Richard Bushman.
The cognitive science of religion and tolerance. Chris suggested this relative to all the discussion of the NYT article. I've not read it yet.
9 Laws of Physics not found in Hollywood. You have no idea how much these bug me when I watch movies. Of course the author made some mistakes themselves. (Most bullets are metal jacketed)
NYT on the cognitive science of religious belief. Largely summarizing Atran, but it's generating a lot of discussion I hope to comment on soon. (At Pure Pedantry, the Island of Doubt, Living the Scientific Life, the Frontal Cortex and Gene Expression)
Peter against externalism about qualia. I admit that while I am an externalist I tend to find qualia an odd case. I'm prone to be an internalist about them, albeit not in the way most materialists who accept it do. I tend to see qualia as at best a trace of a thing or a sign.
Peter on intuitions in philosophy
Review of Cognition and the Brain: The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement at NDPR
Saudi oil production drops by 8%. It sounds like the Ghawar oil field is in decline.
Russell offers an interesting summary of communitarianism.
Gallup poll on perceptions of Mormons. Ignoring Romney it's kind of interesting Catholics like us so much and liberals hate us so much.
Duck Rabbit on interpreting Wittgenstein. Specifically the passage typically translated as, "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence."
A Priori Metaphysical Possibility
BCC interview Givens and Bushman on Mormon Studies. (Pt 1.)
Will the military lead the way in moving away from petro?
Feynman QED lectures available as streaming video
Do email and the web lower IQ? Nice rebutting of media hype and mis-reporting. (Yeah, I've heard this one too)
Bill Gates on American competitiveness. Hard to argue with his points although I'm sure the immigrant issue will be grating to some. But American industry and science has been successful in part because of the constant influx of educated immigrants. (HT: Pure Pedantry)
Are all counter-possibles true? Take on Williamson's new book.
New method of x-ray laser generation. I used to work on inertial confinement fusion and we had some seriously huge laser although we got x-rays indirectly from them. (HT: Cognitive Daily)
John Baez on Smolin and Woit's anti-string books. Great non-technical discussion.
The cult of genius. Or why idolizing Richard Feynman can be bad for physics students. I disagree about Feynman, but agree with how to develop intelligence.
Richard on fundamentalist atheists. Nice comments from Brandon and Chris. Note that Chris had a related discussion a month or so ago. I've just not read enough of Dawkins political writings to have much of a position.
Weird turn in the Derrida papers scandal. (HT: Continental Philosophy)
An other environmentalist for nuclear power. I think eventually the environmental movement has to start emphasizing alternatives beyond conservation. Right now there still is a strong luddite component to the movement. On the other hand solar and wind can be useful if hydrogen cars ever get off the ground.
Great post on hapiness at SciAm. Happiness is better equated with satisfaction than pleasure. Should we be satisfied?
Russell gives a great discussion on abortion. Avoids the normal questions of personhood to raise some class issues. Although ultimately its more about the labels in the debate than about the debate itself.
Nice discussion on qualia up at Brain Pains. The main focus is the philosophy of perception.
Scientists grow new teeth in the mouth. OK, in mice. But still...
New Philosopher's Carnival is up.
A quick and dirty list of refutations of Divine Command Theories. Interesting given the chapter of Blake's book we're reading. Also discussed at Siris.
What you thought you knew about Pythagoras is wrong
Russell Arben Fox on Romney. Also at T&S. Daniel Larison?s response.
Test of underground carbon sequestering
And a bionic eye. And perhaps coincidentally NBC is bringing back The Bionic Woman. (Although I was always a Six Million Dollar Man fan as a kid -- but you can't buy very much for six million anymore)
cuThe inverse power of praise. How not to talk to your kids to get them to succeed. Our culture really has a thing about self-esteem and our efforts to build it are often counter-productive.
Dissoi Blogoi on the recent SEP article on Heraclitus. (1, 2, and 3, with more to come)
An other reason to pick Romney over McCain. McCain wants ID taught in school while Romney doesn't.
Origin of the term "junk DNA".
Discussion of that Times article on cosmic rays and global warming
More on that study that cognitively the brain uses the same parts to remember the past and imagine the future.. I find these studies quite fascinating. Kind of related to Heidegger's thinking in a way. (If I ever find the time I'll do a post on that)
Peirce and game theoretical ideas in logic.
Peter Woit on string theory textbooks. Probably pointless for me to pick these up at this stage.
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 245). I need to make enough money in chocolate so I can devote sufficient time to study category theory.
Building face composites may harm eyewitness memory. And there are other problems.
Research into repressed memories. NYT claims "the phenomenon is a cultural construct that emerged very recently."
Basics of game theory at John Hawks.
Stem cells used to make more "natural" breast augmentation. I could see this for breast cancer patients. But there's something a tad creepy about risking a treatment like this for cosmetic vanity.
An other environmentalist for nuclear power. I think eventually the environmental movement has to start emphasizing alternatives beyond conservation. Right now there still is a strong luddite component to the movement. On the other hand solar and wind can be useful if hydrogen cars ever get off the ground.
Great post on hapiness at SciAm. Happiness is better equated with satisfaction than pleasure. Should we be satisfied?
Russell gives a great discussion on abortion. Avoids the normal questions of personhood to raise some class issues. Although ultimately its more about the labels in the debate than about the debate itself.
Nice discussion on qualia up at Brain Pains. The main focus is the philosophy of perception.
Scientists grow new teeth in the mouth. OK, in mice. But still...
New Philosopher's Carnival is up.
A quick and dirty list of refutations of Divine Command Theories. Interesting given the chapter of Blake's book we're reading. Also discussed at Siris.
What you thought you knew about Pythagoras is wrong
Russell Arben Fox on Romney. Also at T&S. Daniel Larison?s response.
Test of underground carbon sequestering
And a bionic eye. And perhaps coincidentally NBC is bringing back The Bionic Woman. (Although I was always a Six Million Dollar Man fan as a kid -- but you can't buy very much for six million anymore)
cuThe inverse power of praise. How not to talk to your kids to get them to succeed. Our culture really has a thing about self-esteem and our efforts to build it are often counter-productive.
Dissoi Blogoi on the recent SEP article on Heraclitus. (1, 2, and 3, with more to come)
An other reason to pick Romney over McCain. McCain wants ID taught in school while Romney doesn't.
Origin of the term "junk DNA".
Discussion of that Times article on cosmic rays and global warming
More on that study that cognitively the brain uses the same parts to remember the past and imagine the future.. I find these studies quite fascinating. Kind of related to Heidegger's thinking in a way. (If I ever find the time I'll do a post on that)
Peirce and game theoretical ideas in logic.
Peter Woit on string theory textbooks. Probably pointless for me to pick these up at this stage.
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 245). I need to make enough money in chocolate so I can devote sufficient time to study category theory.
Building face composites may harm eyewitness memory. And there are other problems.
Research into repressed memories. NYT claims "the phenomenon is a cultural construct that emerged very recently."
Basics of game theory at John Hawks.
Stem cells used to make more "natural" breast augmentation. I could see this for breast cancer patients. But there's something a tad creepy about risking a treatment like this for cosmetic vanity.
Dark matter as sterile neutrinos. Interesting speculation clearly discussed at Cosmic Variance.
Derrida on Heidegger (HT: Enowning)
Williamson on philosophical methadology. (HT: Brain Hammer)
Why do we worry about intuitions as evidence? The comments are a must read.
DuckRabbit on what does objectivity mean? Largely a discussion of the latest segment in the Sokal, Science, PoMo saga. Yet an other great post.
A short history of the shadow. The metaphor of shadow in art and epistemology. (HT: Continental Philosophy)
Could I be a body and soul composite? Note the controversial (to me) second premise. For Mormons that soul and spirit probably are separate concepts. (See D&C 88:15)
Yahoo Pipes. A pretty nice rss feed manipulator that appears modeled on OSX's Automator. O'Reilly has an overview as well as some tips. I played with it and like it but suspect I'd prefer Python. (I think that of Automator as well)
Lots of discussion about September Dawn, that sensationalized movie about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Mormon Wasp has up a discussion of the back and forth in the press as well as a discussion of the script. Mormon Mentality has a discussion as did This Mormon Life. I'm sure more will be coming in the future.
A rather ironic fight over Derrida's papers has unfolded at the University of California
Umm, disfluency and comprehension. One of the most interesting posts Chris has put up.
Jim Faulconer on "The Ordinary"
Brandon on non-convergence and moral realism
A worry for deflationists? Interesting post about deflationary views of truth and language paradoxes.
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers. I'd missed that last week but it's worth reading. Typical New Scientist warnings apply: they tend to sensationalize things. The role of mitochondria is interesting though.
The problem of evil for atheists. I'm not sure I buy it though. (HT: MM)
Self awareness is simply using mirror neurons for "looking at myself as if someone else is look at me." I'm not sure that solves consciousness as such but probably does tie in to our awareness of self.
WSJ on the problems of corn ethanol to fight global warming
Your unconscious is better at processing information than you are.
Poll of American attitudes towards science. Uncertain Principles notes what I agree is a huge problem. 87% of Americans rate being a scientist as a prestigious career but 75% can't name a living scientist. It's hardly the only problem. But it's a big one...
Philosophia Naturalis #6. The physical science carnival. (Is it just me or are there a lot of these carnivals now? -- I can't keep up.)
Ninety percent of your brain is (not) useless. Great discussion of that "we only use 10% of our brain" myth and the question of how one could possible test it as a hypothesis.
Monkey signal modulation. I find discussions about the evolution of language to be among my favorites. (You'll recall we did a reading club on Tomasello's book on the subject last year)
Critique of Pinker's The Blank Slate. Yeah he tended to get a lot wrong in the book. Ultimately I still enjoyed it. Polemics, whether Dawkins or Pinker's, can't be judged quite the way we do scholarship I think. And most Polemics are philosophically naive.
Prion disease (aka mad cow) reversible. Extremely interesting and may have implications for Alzheimer's.
Pretty devastating critique of Searle's latest on free will. I sure wasn't impressed with his New Scientist article either.
Vallicella against moderate scholastic realism. I'm still thinking about this since Peirce is an example of a moderate realist. Hopefully I'll put up a post soon. (HT: Agora Metaphysica)
Is religion built on lies? A debate between controversial author Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan. I'm not sure Sullivan is the interlocutor I'd have picked. Surely they could have found someone else? (HT: Prosthesis)
The difference between 100% probable and certain. Really interesting implication that makes sense once you think about it.
Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology available as a PDF. Well worth reading if you haven't. I first read it in college and it was very influential on me. (HT: Siris)
Want some exposure to Derrida of his more "philosophical" style? Check out "Signature Event Context" which is one of his better short papers. It's available as a PDF. (HT: Continental Philosophy)
The Continental Philosophy blog is back up. I guess it's been up for a while and I just missed it. I used to regularly read it and then posts stopped for a while so I'd deleted it from my blog roll.
My "The Week in Science and Religion" column
Why can't we tickle ourselves?
The ten words bloggers misspell the most. And they aren't caught by your spelling dictionary. My error is always writing a word as a closely sounding word.
Maverick Philosopher defends substance dualism from the interaction critique. I'll admit I'm not persuaded. But certainly the Thomist is in a better position than the Cartesian.
Johnny-Dee takes suggestions for Jazz listening
If you didn't notice the comment, someone's put the Dreyfus Heidegger lectures up as a Bit Torrent. Also on how to convert the dss files from the 2005 lectures.
Prizes versus grants to fund research.
Teaching logic and its basics. I agree with Brandon, not enough logic is taught in High School.
42cd Philosopher's Carnival. Once again no entry from me. (grin) I was familiar with most of this week's entries and several have shown up on the sidebar here. So I don't really have much to comment.
Prisoners and neurology. But of an interesting critique of the recent Time article that discussed Supermax prisons. Although it does seem to me that extended solitary probably will really whig people out.
The Plantinga Page (HT: Dangerous Idea)
Site about Psalms 82 and the Divine Council. This is a non-Mormon site but it's clearly relevant to LDS thought. FAIR has up a limited discussion by concerning the ideas
Great interview with John Baez of TWMP fame. Also discussed at The n-Category Cafe.
Interesting discussion of fibromyalgia and neurology. We'll see if the treatment is successful. But I agree that the discoveries are very interesting for understanding the brain.
The difference between the sciences and the humanities. And why physicists become exasperated with philosophers of science.
MM on the etymology of Schwarzenegger and Heidegger
Voloh on the Republican War on Science. Worth reading although treatment of science was one of the (many) failures of congress and Bush the previous six years. I think they were worse than prior governments. Sadly. One hopes the new Democrat congress will be better but I'm very cynical.
Duck Rabbit on Rorty and his critics. Great post.
Thinking with the spinal cord rather than brain
Molecule cures diabetes in mice. Be interesting to see if this pans out in adults. Both Alzheimer's and Diabetes seem to finally be seeing some breakthroughs. A vaccine clears alzheimer's plaques in mice.
How neurons communicate (HT: Cognitive Daily)
Sapir-Whorf still valid? Cognitive Daily with a different take on the data. I'd discussed this relative to Heidegger last fall.
Human metabalome completed. A big deal and perhaps more significant than the human genome project. The map of proteins is the biggest thing coming up though.
Discussion of Theodor Dalrymple's latest book on heroin addiction. He's a controversial figure. However I've had several friends end up addicted to heroin and it certainly didn't seem like the stereotypes your read about. I'm inclined to agree with Dalrymple somewhat although it is somewhat counter-intuitive.
SciAm on grid cells in the hyppocampus. Related to mental maps of the environment. John Hawks comments on the same. In a somewhat related vein Gene Expression on hippocampal damage and imaging future scenarios.
Dinosaurs critique zombies as a pandemic worry. (HT: Reality Conditions)
Peter Woit on the latest hyped claims of tests for string theory
"Do You Believe in Magic?" at the Science Times and a commentary at Cosmic Variance. If I have time I'll try to make a few comments in a future post. Cognitive Daily also had some thoughts.
The human hand in climate change (HT: Real Climate who have lots of comments on it)
Not too philosophical but my brother passed along a great site with podcasts on military history.
Spirit and Mind in Joseph Smith's use. Descended into a discussion of modalism that was somewhat interesting.
Does existentialism still matter?
More problems for pollsters: the rise of cell only families. That used to be us but we paid for the landline since Cingular's coverage wasn't great by our house on the mountainside. I'd add that I'm not sure a decrease in trust for polls is a bad thing. I think we're way too poll driven.
Falsehoods and the bearing on the externalist debate. Nice post by Clayton well worth reading.
Nice discussion of survival of the fittest
Doctors' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7000 people yearly. One (of many) reason I never became a doctor.
Religion and crime and more on the same. Pretty interesting although a bit unsurprising. (HT: Evolving Thoughts)
Why do many Muslims use Arabesque transliterations such as Allah rather than perfectly good English translations? I have no opinion on this myself, but it is an interesting question. Ditto with Latin for Catholics.
Stephen Pinker on language and metaphor. Of course not everyone are fans of the evolutionary psychology approach.
Activation of a particular brain region appears tied to altruism. The study suggests altruism originates from how people view the world rather than their acting within it. It also deals with the perception of agency. It'll be interesting to see the followup studies since at this stage it's pretty crude. Also at John Hawks.
QFT texts for beginners. I've been looking for something like this since I didn't care for Weinberg's text. (HT: Not Even Wrong)
Culture and near death experiences. My favorite, "East Indians sometimes see Heaven as a giant bureaucracy, and frequently report being sent back because of clerical errors."
Higgaion has been blogging chapter by chapter on Dawkin's The God Delusion. (HT: Stranger Fruit)
Duckrabbit onThe "Wittgenstein fallacy." An interesting analysis of the world of philosophy within academia. Or, how does publish or perish affect what kind of philosophy gets done.
Content internalism. I'll probably have a few comments when I get time. One issue is what counts as content vs. descriptions.
I got busy and didn't update things for a while. But you must check out Encephalon 14 the brain blogging carnival. Lots of great posts.
What is force? I'd add in that one can't separate out the scientific use from the more everyday common sense view of force as resistance we feel. Of course the common sense view is easy to mislead and is at best vague but it is the basis for understanding the more technical (and correct) senses.
Largest Schroedigner Cat. (HT: Uncertain Principles)
An attempt to blog just about science. (Also at Mixing Memory) I might contribute myself even though I've been pretty much just doing philosophy. Starts February 5th.
Climate change unites science and religion. Maybe this is one way to get past the silly science wars that has led so many atheistic scientists to see religion as a threat.
Lee Smolin's "natural selection" model of multiple universes proved wrong. You need to be a New Scientist subscriber to read the whole thing. The paper is on Arxiv with a response by Smolin disputing it.
What we hear affects what we see. Fascinating cognitive demo.
Dark force to go along with dark energy and matter? I suspect some of the more informed science blogs will be on this.
Mixing Memory on Scientism. (100 comments+ already - so I came late to the discussion) Also this post.
Philosophy Journal Wiki (HT: GFP)
The hundred greatest theorems. Or at least one person's list. I can't argue too much with the first 20. It certainly seems much less controversial than most music lists like this. Although I'd probably put Leibniz' expansion for Pi higher.
Scientists may be able to "cure" gay sheep. Obvious ethical issues arise (mainly by an appeal to the slippery slope fallacy IMO).
Scientists map out dark matter. This has been done in small regions but this is the first full map. Great discussion at Cosmic Variance.
Stem Cells in amniotic fluid. I'm convinced that long before final human trials for any treatment are underway that we'll have found plentiful and uncontroversial sources of stem cells.
Interesting interview with Derrida on pragmatism. Actually more a response to Rorty regarding demonstrable works such as Glas. Derrida calls the performative use of language pragrammatology. This then ties to the issue of choice and responsibility.
Video of Derrida on the science of ghosts from the 80's.
Derrida on Freedom. Yeah, I wrote it, but it seemed relevant I needed a refresher myself.
Giant spectometer going through a small town. Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie with the town under attack. (HT: Cosmic Variance)
The atheological character of LDS. A draft from Jim Faulconer that Russell linked to. I'd not seen it before but it's worth reading (even if the fonts are somewhat off).
Paul, predestination, and LDS thought. An interesting argument based upon cultural differences.
Russell replies to Damon Linker. It's fantastic and a must read. He also points out a little bit of religious polemics over at Slate from around Christmas I'd missed.
The never ending free will debate is on again at New Cool Thang. A discussion of the NYT article from last week and especially the Libet experiment. Turns into a discussion of conscious and unconscious free will. (With "dualisms" to boot)
Lecture notes for an early American pragmatism class. Some might find them interesting.
KCPW interviews Damon Linker over his recent TNR article. (HT: T&S) Also Linker responds to Bushman. I suspect Friday Bushman will have an other reply.
2006 Darwin Awards. Note: Ben Franklin's most important safety procedure with the kite was to let someone else fly it.
"Is Quine a Verificationalist?"
When celebrities talk science. Yeah, as you might expect... Although the BBC is really reaching with what they consider a celebrity.
Nate on Linker's TNR story about Mormonism and Romney. A rebuttal to Linker by Richard Bushman is now up at the TNR. (It's quite good - a pretty big slam on Linker) Mormon Mentality addresses Linker as well.
Blake defends Open Theistic hermeneutics.
New Indiana Jones movie a go...
Review of Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth. Kind of does for geography what Eco's Search for the Perfect Language did for linguistics. I might put this on my Amazon list. (HT: T&S
Dawkins responds to the "teaching religion is child abuse" charge (HT: LDS Science Review) Buggy Saints Row: The Musical. Funniest thing I've seen in a while. A guy taped all the pretty atrocious bugs in a video game and set it to music. Vaccine to cure all strains of flu? Well, all those with a specific protein. Although that includes all the flu we need worry about. Great review of Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown jazz album Russell Fox on Damon Linker's critique of Romney and Mormon views of morality. Well worth reading. Johnny Dee on the parallel between faith and testimony. (Yeah, I'm far behind on my readings of blogs) Great interview with Umberto Eco from the 90's that suggested computers give too much information. Things have, of course, gotten far worse the past decade. Kevin on Ricoeur and the Cogito and the ontical priority of the question of being. Which reminds me that I really need to do a careful read through of Being and Time again. As I've been reading some other Heidegger I'm realizing I've forgotten too much. Review of In Search of Dark Matter. Interesting but I bet it doesn't address the exciting new discoveries from August and September. Mathematics and fools. Great essay on the nature of proofs with a good aside about Hume reading Euclid. Philosophy and Shopping. I'm not sure I buy it. Basically how they pomos (I hate that term) wanted to destroy capitalism and ended up predicting how it would reinvent itself. Is the US doing better than the EU on carbon emissions? Known Unknowns. Fascinating discussion on metacognition and whether monkeys have consciousness. 250th anniversary of William Blake Excellent paper on Peirce's logic and critical commonsensism. Relevant to some of our recent discussions although the focus is inquiry and the web. It is a tad technical though. Dave reviews Rodney Stark's new book on early Christianity, Cities of God. A very different approach and perspective. I might put this in my Amazon queue. Would Maxwell have developed relativity before Einstein? Physics Web on the 175th anniversary of Maxwell's laws. He died young at 48. Peter Woit replies to Polchinski's review. Chris continues his streak of excellent posts with one on the punishment of unrelated crimes. Religion and memory. Mixing Memory talking a bit about Atran's arguments about religion. Well worth reading (as is Atran's book). Four definitions of epistemic internalism. Interesting argument with them. Is the concept of set intuitive? Cosmic Variance on yet more ignorance from the humanities about physics departments. New blog Neurontic on a related interpretation by Chomsky. Bioink-jet printer prints differentiating stem cells. I think this technology is amazingly cool. If they can get to the point of printing nerves and complex structures this will be huge. Chris on religious cognition. A repeat from a couple of years ago at the old Mixing Memory. But obviously relevant to our recent discussions here. The effects of swearing on memory. Also a followup. John Hawks on Apocalpypto and Jared Diamond's Collapse. South Park and philosophy and Libertarianism. Yes they manage to compare Cartman and the Symposium. Part 2 and part 3 of Per caritatem's series on Marion. I'd linked to Part 1 last week. New light particle discovered. Also at The n-Category Cafe who urge some caution. Talking Popper. Why is he the one philosopher of science most scientists recognize and think is right? Despite appearing to get a lot about science wrong? A dialog well worth reading. The religious gender gap. An economic and cognitive perspective. Do psychopaths have different kinds of brains? Joe Polchinski on the String Debates. Probably the best rejoinder to the anti-string books I've read. Embodied language and expertise at MM Peter on Immortality. I need to refresh my memory on Heidegger and immortality. (As opposed to say death) An other story about our chocolate Mixing memory on "I've yet to meet a Dawkinsian rationalist who knows what they are talking about on religion." Chaos erupts in the comments. Great discussion although sadly I noticed it after already 100 comments were made and things had died down. Also at Prosthesis. Evolution and the demarcation problem. No, it's not what you're thinking. It's the parallel between the demarcation problem and evolutionary trees. Well worth reading. Pyramids built with cement and not just rocks? Peter on a better philosophical method.
Two Types of Imitation of God in Plato and Aristotle. Also Plato on the Assimilation to the Divine. Revival of vitalism? I'm skeptical. Like Gary I thought the discovery of DNA put the nail in the coffin of vitalism. First of a series of posts on Jean Luc Marion. Marion argues Christian love is the pre-eminent phenomenological category. Interestingly there are some parallels in this claim to Peirce, although I should add that I'm not a huge fan of Marion. (HT: Enowning) There is a blog that does not exist discusses our discussion on religion, epistemology and evidence. Chris of Mixing Memory returns to Recovered Memories Ritual, habit, and ceremony. Can a person avoid all ritual in life? I'm with Brandon. It's possible but unlikely. Conservativism and pro-Darwinism Jeff on the argument from religious experience Optical pathways not source of deja vu. Actually I'm surprised folks still believed that. Going to church protects and maintains pulmonary health Pump made from cultured heart cells Pain from Fibromyalgia real. My mom suffers from this. Review of The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientific Mind. Sounds like a book to put on the list. App makes a web page of your music that looks like iTunes. Yeah, not philosophy related, but cool nonetheless. Chris and Mixing Memory has some great links to papers about philosophy of mind in the medieval period. I especially liked "Why Isn't the Mind-Body Problem Mediaeval?" and "Anselm's Philosophy of Language." While Chris didn't link to it I think "Duns Scotus' Metaphysics" is well worth reading by the same author. (It's in the Cambridge Companion) NYT on Tom Stoppard's new play What happens to humans in hard vacuum. It's not like the endings of Total Recall or Outland. 90% of email is spam. Judging by my email, I can believe it! 39th Philosopher's Carnival. I'll see if I can't make some comments later. Atheism of suspicion vs. atheism of skepticism The dream argument at MP. Basically dreams are qualitatively different from waking experiences but Austin makes an argument from language for it. Yet one more reason why I prefer phenomenology inspired philosophy to the language style of Austin and others. Six views of embodied cognition End notes versus footnotes. I hate the relative demise of the footnote. I really prefer the style of notes from the 50's than what's been foisted on us the past decade or two. At least some publishers put "notes for page xxx" on the top of the page in end note section. Most don't making going back and forth a painful experience. Explanation of recent upsurge in spam. Yes, it involves the Russian mafia. I'm getting about 1500 spam a day now. Even with 99% accurate spam filtering that's a lot that gets through come Monday morning. Family breakups linked to schizophrenia On indifference to the atheist - religion wars. And why some don't tolerate neutrality. Science blogs you may not be reading Platonic solids 1500 years before Plato Pinker on reason and faith and Harvard's view of science. Major breakthrough in understanding of the human genome. We're much more different than initially thought. Rehabilitating Hegel? Hegel's legacy in light of Heidegger's readings of him. Categorical phenomenalism and physicalism Three teams discover how to make heart stem cells. This could be huge for cardiovascular disease. The Truman problem at Positive Liberty. Basically the problem of whether we should give people a choice if they aren't able to really freely make a choice due to a lack of understanding. They bring up an interesting paper about religious indoctrination as child abuse but note believers could make the same charge about atheism. Names and God. I've been meaning to discuss this in a Peircean context for quite some time. Hopefully I'll get to it eventually. I discussed more of less the same problem back in my post on describing God. Waves and bubbles in a sphere of water in space. The alka seltzer at the end is the best. Duck Rabbit on the Berube discussion at the Valve. Actually as much a discussion of Rorty as anything. Perception of consequences between the east and west. Fascinating article. One wishes studies like this were made of folks in the middle east as well. Rethinking Peer Review. I think that physics has really blazed the way here in making use of the internet to further dialog. They now have ways of referring to blog discussions of online papers. I think other disciplines ought follow the physics model. (HT: Enowning who adds some comments) Great "Eco-esque" article on beauty from the Washington Post. Wired on the Church of the Non-Believers. Winning converts or preaching to the choir? (They had an earlier story I'd linked to last week) "Grice in the Wake of Peirce" I've always been a fan of Grice's approach to language and meaning. This argues for a close relation of Peirce and Grice. Also see "The Rationality of Conversational Implicature" which in passing notes where Peirce or Derrida's unlimited semiosis might enter in. Artificial chromosomes to correct genetic defects. Let's hope this works better than the gene therapy that was attempted in the late 90's. Borat tries it again, gets beaten up and saved by Dr. House. Yeah, no kidding. Decline in foreign students studying in the US reversed. A lot of that was due to hassles from 9/11 security. Being able to nab the best and the brightest of the world to help our academics and economy is an important thing. But I just can't see this continuing indefinitely - especially not as universities in other nations catch up with us. (Something we ought to hope for) Yet an other book I wish was available in paperback at 1/3 the cost... The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. My all time wish is The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy which goes for a cool $190. Kagan and Kristol summarize Bush's Iraq legacy. Pretty well summarizes my own views and criticisms as well. Richard Feynman's gold doorstop The Chronicle of Higher Education on what's wrong with the society for Biblical literature? Response at NT Gateway Weblog. (HT: Urban Mormonism) The Chronicle of Higher Education on the danger of approaching religion through science. I disagree and might make a post on this one of these days. Probably closest is this post on various attempts to consider religion. Humanoid robot soccer finals. Fascinating. Comments on it at New Scientist. Latest philosopher's carnival. Hopefully I'll have some comments later. (Yes, I know I'm behind on things) Stem cells cure one of the leading causes of blindness. The problem is finding the cells that would work. Also see their use on macular degeneration. Wave powered desalination This idea has actually been talked about for a long time. But this engineering design is pretty clever albeit perhaps too low of volume to solve the problems of water for large populations. Micro RNA the big difference between human and chip brains? Enowning on the nine points of the ontological difference. Points 1 - 4 and 5 - 9. Speaking in Tongues and cognitive science. I went on my LDS mission to Louisiana where a lot of (non-LDS) people did it. It always kind of freaked me out. Alcohol rarely mentioned in media reports on violence. 31% of murders and 34% of accidents involved alcohol. I suspect in reality the figures are higher. Science and medieval Christianity. Did Christianity make science possible? Every time you vote Republican... Outside of Senator (I can't stand Hatch) I'm pretty well voting Republican across the board. But this still made me laugh. What role should the scientific community play in the formulation of science and technology policy? It would be nice if there was more communication - it'd make the process much easier. But while the scientists are often willing the public is often not. Davidson on consciousness, mental states, and cognitive science. (I put this here so I can easily come back to it when I return to Davidson) The loss of objectivity. Great post by Jeff on objective observations. T Theories and Meaning. Peter raises a good question at the beginning. Even if T theories tell us about meaning do they tell us about what's going on in the brain or mind? Interestingly I'd had Larson and Segal's book Knowledge of Meaning up on my next "to buy" collection at Amazon. (I plan to get back to my Davidson study soon) Wow. WSJ on the White Horse Prophecy and Romney. FAIR has an overview of the purported prophecy. (HT: M*) Chomsky's generative grammar applied to morals. An innate grammar that generates instance moral judgments. I'm skeptical. Homonyms, polysems, and metaphor. Psychological similarity in men and women. Many of our stereotypes are just wrong. Nice thoughtful commentary on all those "stop aging" stories going around. Why is it that the media so often hypes science stories so much they are unrecognizable? Chocolate doesn't make kids hyper. What makes a nation wealthy? The next big blockbuster in economics? Interesting discussion at Marginal Revolution as well. One of the better discussions of liberal bias in the academy. I don't have a huge opinion on the matter although I'm not a fan of Horowitz. Abused monkeys more likely to be abusers. Very interesting relative to the cognitive science of child abuse. Apparently abused monkeys had 10 - 20% less serotonin. Government sets up classified wiki. Actually a pretty intelligent thing to do. Brandon on Cosmic Varian's reading of Dawkins
Soam's history of analytic philosophy in America online. I liked his two volume series on the arguments as well although I know not everyone did. (HT: Brood Comb) Simple explanation of Hegelian Dialectic Sense data vs. first person data. Nice clarification although I didn't realize the empiricist notion of sense data was so discredited. Motivations affect what you "see." Badiou on Derrida at UC Irvine.
OK, I just couldn't help putting this gif of the entier movie Star Wars up.
The Darwinian explanation of the success of science
Why should analytic philosophers care about history?
MM on description vs. causal theories of reference and God.
Can an atheist be a fundamentalist?
Cosmic Variance on the God conundrum. Some interesting questions although fairly beside the point for the LDS view of God. (Although that view arguably Dawkins argues against more strongly)
Fat stem cells might provide an alternative for breast reconstruction. A big thing for women who've had them removed due to cancer. It's still a bit early but the heart tissue folks have had some success, albeit with ESC.
Explaining Mormonism. Richard Bushman has a post on the goal to explain Mormonism in a fashion akin to Lewis' Mere Christianity. Also see Bushman's Open Letter at T&S regarding the upcoming Yale conference on LDS religious studies.
NSA recruits 'Lost' viewers (HT: Kultureblog)
How long errors last on Wikipedia. Somewhat surprising, although I think it depends upon how esoteric an article is. I've found (and corrected) errors on various posts. What's more interesting is the relationship between "real" experts and editors.
Free speech and the campus left. Very good post I found in this week's philosopher's carnival.
Ratio of compatibilists to incompatibilists among philosophers.
Bono on religion (HT: Siris)
New Philosopher's Carnival. Yeah, it's been a while since I submitted anything.
Heidegger and practice vs. theology in practical religion. Interesting discussion. Most worshipers don't know the nuances of theology. So why so much focus on them? (HT: Enowning)
Wired on the new atheists. Cover a lot of the same old ground. BTW - can I mention how annoying the use of "Brights" to describe atheists is? Although I suppose it's not that more annoying that folks going around telling everyone they're saved. (Mormons tend not to do that although I know our rhetoric of "the one true church" annoys people)
Do violent movies increase crime? Interesting. There have been similar studies making such claims about pornography and rape. I'm not entirely sure what to believe in this regard. But clearly increased aggression doesn't necessitate increased aggressive acts.
Yet an other promising source of stem cells. A new technique to get them from skin. It works on mice but will it work with humans?
John Searle reviews at The New York Review of Books Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey. I disagree with Searle on both speech acts and his view of the mind. (I'm definitely a Peircean in terms of both) But he's always an interesting read. His criticisms often more valuable than his positive assertions.
Neoconservatism: "I'm not dead yet" When I looked into it instead of the scare stories I actually liked its ideas. It's been the implementation that has been massively destructive.
Clayton has a great discussion of externalism. I kind of wish I hadn't missed this discussion. There have been a ton of externalism posts at various blogs I've either missed or not had time to comment on.
How language affects cognition of objects. Is this the Sapir-Whorf or something more in line with Heidegger? Here's part 2.
Brandon on Theism and the Multiverse. I think most version of Mormon theology end up requiring a multiverse given all the current indications of how the universe evolves according to physics. (Yes I admit there are few big bang doubters still)
US Government re-examining some key stem-cell patents that have been limiting research.
Antimatter and matter combine in chemical reaction. The creation of Protonium.
Bad graphs. My old stats teacher used to bring in bad graphs from sociology all the time. (He was pretty anti-soft science)
Concerns with the latest Lancet study that aren't just disbelieving the results.
Girl drops bottle in Norway and it ends up in New Zealand in 47 days. Is it possible?
Discrepancy in the Standard Model?. Somehow I suspect this will be worked out, but it would be great if it isn't.
Philosophy of Physics. I was about to slap down my dollars at Amazon until I saw it was priced for libraries. Seriously, couldn't they have priced it about $170 lower?
10 Unnecessary Yet Cool Gadgets. I'd add the Zero Blaster which my son got as a birthday present from my brother yesterday.
Weird. John Hawks on elephants raping and killing rhinoceroses
Damon Linker at Slate on Mitt Romney and Mormonism
Death of cursive. My handwriting is sloppy since I almost never use it. Only I can read it and occasionally I have trouble. It's frustrating writing as it's so much slower than typing. But I'd probably have to print to make my writing legible to others.
Derrida on revelation, revealability and Heidegger It's YouTube audio. (HT: Enowning)
Marion against Heidegger. (HT: Enowning) I've only read a few major papers by Marion including his famous Anselm argument. I end up disagreeing with him I think. I personally think Marion returns to too traditional a sense of Being.
Pinker vs. Lakoff. Chris at Mixing Memory joins in the anti-Lakoff blogging. Also at The Valve.
Gallup poll shows 66% of Americans think America isn't ready for a Mormon President
The Pope got rid of Limbo. Brandon at Siris discusses it.
Burton Richter on theory in particle physics. The view of physics turning into theology are commonly held by many critics of string theory. (HT: Thoughts Arguments and Rants)
Philosophical arguments for there being sex in heaven. This is actually a theological position for Mormons. Note that Peter Kreeft isn't Mormon. (HT: Summa Philosophiae)
Those stupid extended warranties and behavioral economics
Evolving Thoughts on evolutionary epistemology
The Nietzsche Family Circus (HT: Mixing Memory A Nietzschean Dilbert would be great)
New Scientist has two interesting podcasts with E. O. Wilson. He's trying to convince Evangelicals to protect biodiversity. (Part 1, Part 2) Also at iTunes.
Sean at Cosmic Variance give a longer version of his New Scientist review of Lee Smolin's anti-String book.
Podcast of Jim Faulconer on the Self
Mixing Memory on mirror neurons. Here and then a a discussion of the sense of self and other from mirror neurons.
Presence vs. Presencing in Heidegger. Also a nice discussion in the comments of the two senses of Being.
Heidegger on Meaning and Reference. The normative significance of the ontological difference. (HT: Enowning)
Brandon on Bayesian arguments in philosophy. "Bayesian epistemology is a noxious weed that first entered the philosophical garden through philosophy of science." I admit I agree but not everyone does.
Dawkins the Literalist. A must read post by Brandon. Gets at how lots of figures are accused of literalist readings to push their brand of fundamentalism whereas politics is normally the real source.
Johnny Cash and Philosophy? Well there was after all that U2 and Philosophy book we discussed last year. Should be an interesting book.
Lecture on the difference between Continental and Analytic philosophy. Well worth reading. It focuses more on philosophy's attempts to be a science and the abandonment of history and the transformation of the self. (Note, it's by Rorty - I'll probably comment on it later)
Some interesting anti-Evolutionary Psychology rants. Suggesting that EP adopts a Leibnizean view of evolution is an interesting and fairly persuasive critique. (Also some related attacks on Dennett)
Podcast of an interview with Lee Smolin. (HT: Pure Pedantry)
Problems with radiocarbon dating. John Fawks notes: the vast preponderance of totally wrong research lately has been in Nature
Face compositing systems create memories. The question is, given so many problems with common crime fighting methods have their been any reforms?
Who got Feynman's office? And who got his desk?
Religious fundamentalism and existential angst over death. The cognitive science approach.
Literary criticism at its best. A daily commentary. (HT: Daring Fireball)
Interesting discussion of how mirrors reflect light.
Interesting analysis of the Romney - Evangelical kerfuffle over the weekend. Suggests that the attack is by McCain via operatives and is largely an attack on Mormons in general.
Latest Encephalon is up. That's the neurology and cognitive science carnival.
"The Luck Problem for Compatibilists" A problem for free will of any stripe.
Empirical studies and folk views of intentional action. Several papers. "Understanding the Folk Concept of Intentional Action: Philosophical and Experimental Issues" "The Folk Strike Back; Or, Why You Didn?t Do It Intentionally, Though It Was Bad and You Knew It" The one thing I think empirical studies are showing is how open to emotions our intuitive and conceptual judgments are, not to mention how they vary according to how the "situation" is presented. Thus making such analysis problematic to me.
Spinoza's Physical Theory over at the SEP.
The Act of Choice. Something key to debates about free will that hasn't received the attention it deserves. It's more pro-compatibilism but I'm a tad skeptical still since it's still largely based on concept analysis.
Are Newtonian Mechanics Determinist? I have to admit I missed the arguments along this line over the past decades. When you think of it infinite space does lead to problems. This paper deals more with a balancing object.
I just had to check. I thought I'd score a lot higher.
Review of Moral Minds by Richard Rorty at the NYT. (HT: Mixing Memory) I'm not a Rorty fan so I'll not speak too much there. I do agree with Chris' general concern of the search for universal moral principles.
New Philosopher's Carnival. Hopefully I'll have time to do my usual and make a few comments later.
Does Conceptual Analysis Have Practical Significance? Richard makes the same point I've long believed. I think we get too wrapped up in language as if it were important in itself rather than the way beings show themselves to us.
Maverick on Leibniz and freedom.
Scientific American on why Christians and conservatives should accept evolution
Times on Fukuyama's After the NeoCons
Nothing in Anselm and Heidegger. Especially check out the three kinds of nothing in the comments. From a new philosophy blog to boot. (HT: Enowning)
Are scholars padding data to move from "almost significant" to significant (and thus publishable)? I think we need more journals of negative results. They are starting to be a few but this is a huge issue in science I fear. Also at Mixing Memory
Where is Mormon theology done?
Popular Science's 10 most brillant young scientists of the year
Finally, the Northwest Passage. This may well affect Canada a great deal as well as doing some big environmental damage due to pollution. (The arctic habitat is very fragile - even ignoring global warming) Still it's interesting that there finally is a Northwest Passage - a romantic quest from 19th century Canadian history.
Evangelicals fight climate change. Interesting that religious groups are lining up. In the US that can really sway an issue.
There's a new blog on the origin of speech: Babel's Dawn. It's a topic I've long found fascinating although I tend to be distrustful of EP. (HT: Cognitive Daily)
More on the tainted spinach. (The FDA is saying to make sure you throw bagged spinach out) Apparently using antibiotics against this bacteria can cause fatal organ failure. Well worth knowing if you got diarrhea after eating spinach.
Mathematics and Virtual Reality. Kind of interesting take on both recent events and the nature of mathematics. Note that David from Philosophy of Real Mathematics is now blogging at the The n-Category Cafe.
Stoic Psychotherapy in Descartes and Spinoza. Yeah, an old paper by Pereboom. But I just came upon it at his website. Of course Pereboom is famous for defending that we don't have accountability of the sort free will proponents argue we have.
"The Fate of Being in Heidegger's Four Seminars 1966-1973" (HT: Enowning)
The Promise (and Limits) of Neuroeconomics. (I haven't had a chance to read this one yet) (HT: Marginal Revolution)
First academic study of stars. Not those stars, the narcissistic ones. I'm a bit skeptical given it's by Dr. Drew. But then most actors I've met were definitely fitting the stereotype.
Major revision of the MacroEvolution FAQ. (HT: Evolving Thoughts)
Peter Woit responds to reviews of his book on String Theory. I hadn't realized until several bloggers brought it up that Slate's science reviewer is a fairly anti-science ID proponent.
Don't eat your spinach! At least not until the FDA can get to the bottom of a dangerous outbreak of Escherichia coli. A nice bit of background to outbreak.
Republicans deserve to lose, but the Democrats don't deserve to win. I think a lot of us conservatives feel that way. Government is a general mess right now.
What does free will secure for you, in the context of our moral responsibility practices, which non-realism about free will cannot, other than the ability to say "free will exists"?
Bérubé responds to Marginal Revolution's review. Lots of comments follow.
Siris on the dislike of religious moderates. I tend to think some secularists dislike of moderates (i.e. anyone who's not their idea of a fundamentalist and literalist) is a bit contrived. It lets them be anti-religion rather than just anti-idiocy. I see the same thing with critics of Mormonism. They have to define real Mormonism to be those easy to attack.
There's a new carnival, this one focused on physics. It's up at Science and Reason.
Review of Damon Linker's The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege. Linker is of course the editor of First Things. (HT: T&S)
US Education slipping - this time in college education. Although I'm also concerned about the assumption college is for everyone. But I agree we could do better.