Philosophy & Ethics

On The Causal Completeness Of Physics, Part I

As readers of this blog know, I am not sympathetic to extreme reductionism, and reject both it and determinism in favor of a robust concept of emergence. ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Mar 2 2013 - 6:00am

Where Are The Honest Atheists?

Damon Linker at theweek.com laments yet another new atheist manifesto, this time by British “philosopher” Grayling with his forthcoming book “The God Argument”.   Damon is looking for me it seems, the title of his article asking:   Where are the honest at ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jul 31 2013 - 9:47am

The Postmodern Core Insight Vs Consistency As Meta-Truth, Last Bastion Against New Totalitarianism

The title should be: Reformulating the Postmodern Core Insight versus Consistency as Absolute Meta-Truth:  Last Bastion against New Totalitarianism- or some such, however, the software does not support the length.  Anyway, let us start: Can anything fundam ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Mar 22 2013 - 10:43am

UK Doctors Who Have Given Placebos: 97 Percent

If you're a taxpayer in the UK, you get medical care for free- even if it's nothing at all. A survey  conducted by the Universities of Oxford and Southampton found that 97% of UK doctors registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) have pre ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 20 2013 - 8:43pm

What Is It Like To Be A Batshit Crazy On Teleology And Darwin

Thomas Nagel wrote one lucky paper back almost half a century ago, titled “ What Is it Like to Be a Bat? ”.   That title went down so well, he has basically made a living from this alone ever since.   Recently, he went fully down the path trodden by many ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Mar 21 2013 - 9:05am

Genomic Liberty? No, You Don't 'Own' Your Genes

If 41 percent of the human genome is covered by longer DNA patents that often cover whole genes, and so many genes share similar sequences within their genetic structure that if all of the "short sequence" patents were allowed in aggregate they ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 26 2013 - 10:01am

The Power Grab Of Science Vs Critical Theory

Those who know the meaning of ‘third culture’, know that since the days when it was lamented that the members of the intellectual elite would not even know the second law of thermodynamics, the land grab of science has been astounding and is indeed an ongo ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Apr 17 2013 - 6:41am

Free Will Vs Free Choice

In watching a recent discussion about "free will", I was surprised as to how quickly the discussion got confused by conflating "free choice" with "free will". [Day 2, Afternoon, First Session:  Free Will/Consciousness] In this ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Apr 26 2013 - 8:25pm

Identity Crisis: Authenticity Versus Suppression Of Cognitive Dissonance

As a researcher in the fields of exact science and philosophy, I am obsessed with “truth”, which is a label of approval we assign to concepts that we judge to be consistent in a certain sense (Example 1 below). How we do that is thus important for the prog ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Apr 30 2013 - 6:31am

Euthanasia: Slope For Newborns Not That Slippery Yet

The Groningen Protocol, introduced in Holland in 2005, was devised to create a standard for doctors who had families that wanted to end the suffering of sick newborns for humanitarian reasons. It outlined parameters to help identify situations in which eu ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 3 2013 - 2:35pm