Philosophy & Ethics

Laws and Flaws The roots of miscarriages of justice. Although this article is about the common law, the author hopes that it may be of more than passing interest to scientists and to all seekers after truth. Over the course of some twenty years the au ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Feb 15 2014 - 6:43pm

Sagan Beats Dawkins. In Related News, Education Overcomes Superstition

I have been doing public outreach for science since I originally moved to Tennessee in 1996. It has been a fun ride, and I’m sure it will continue to be that way for many years to come. But two of the first things I learned when debating creationists and ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jun 25 2013 - 4:02pm

Theories Of Truth

I have wanted to comment for some time about a number of available “theories of truth.” The occasion has now been presented by the fact that I am writing the fourth chapter of my new book (on whether and how philosophy makes progress, forthcoming from Chic ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 7 2013 - 6:46pm

When Science Is Wrong

By now everyone is familiar with some of the more controversial topics in policy discussions featuring scientific topics, so that GMO foods or climate change are readily recognized as "hot button" items. Without getting into those discussions, o ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Jul 10 2013 - 12:21pm

Democracy: The Egyptian Conundrum

Back in 1992, Francis Fukuyama famously argued that the advent of Western liberal democracy spelled nothing less than the endpoint of sociocultural evolution: we have finally discovered the best way to govern people and organize society, and that’s gonna b ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 11 2013 - 5:30am

Fewer Animal Studies May Be Putting Us At Risk

Testing a new therapeutic intervention such as a drug or surgical procedure on human subjects is not an option so the vast majority are first tested on animals and only when they have been established in those trials can human trials be considered. But in ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 12:43am

If National Review Wants Scientists To Take Conservatives Seriously, Jettison The Discovery Institute

How would editors at National Review regard the credibility of a controlled market publication that had its economic policy articles written by astrologers using the stars as their evidence? They might not like it but so what? Can they prove astrologers ca ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 14 2018 - 11:13pm

Testing The Supernatural

Time to reconsider the relationship between science and the supernatural. A number of colleagues in both science and philosophy argue that the supernatural is nothing special, that god-related hypotheses can be tested by ordinary scientific methods, and th ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 31 2013 - 6:48pm

Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

As is well known to readers of this blog, I do not have much sympathy for philosophers like Alvin Plantinga. That’s not because the guy’s not smart (he certainly is), nor because he hasn’t published interesting philosophical arguments (he certainly has). B ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Aug 7 2013 - 7:30am

Philosophy Not In The Business Of Producing Theories: The Case Of The Computational “Theory” Of Mind

Readers of this blog are familiar with my criticism of some scientists or scientific practices, from evolutionary psychology to claims concerning the supernatural. But, especially given my dual background in science and philosophy, I pride myself in being ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Aug 14 2013 - 6:30am