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Philosophy

At ACSH: Understanding the loss of credibility of expert opinion, post-COVID-19

Berezow: A loss of credibility, therefore, happens for other reasons. In the case of coronavirus, we believe there are five reasons: Incompetence, waffling, moving the goalposts, disregarding unintended consequences, and being political. Read More ›

COVID-19 and fading respect for Big Science

It’s not the uncertainty that is the problem. It’s the demand for belief and obedience to a variety of conflicting claims in the face of such uncertainty. Sooner or later people begin to doubt whatever they hear, even in matters about which there is considerable certainty. And Big Science is bringing that on itself. It isn't the "enemies of science" who are doing it. Read More ›

Paul Nelson on methodological naturalism and scientists who don’t believe in it

Nelson: Now, you may think MN is unnecessary, or even unsound, for the practice of science. (Another time, I hope to discuss the surprising fact that many atheist scientists and philosophers disagree strongly with MN, when MN is proclaimed as an unconditional rule.) The National Academy, however, is not listening to you, nor are federal courts, Read More ›

A philosopher explains how you can know for sure that you are not a sim

As philosopher Richard Johns explains, sims do not understand simhood: How can Alice determine whether the strange little man in her apartment who claims to be her Programmer is telling the truth? Recently, philosopher Richard Johns (left), whose work was profiled here at Mind Matters News in “A philosopher explains why thinking matter is impossible,” has now written a piece for Medium. In it, he explains why we cannot create a sim that is a conscious, rational being. He uses a dialogue between “Alice” and “The Programmer” to unpack the idea: The dialogue begins with Alice returning from school to find a strange little man in her apartment. He seemed not to notice her entering the room, and remained seated Read More ›

Asked at Areo Magazine: Did the Catholic Church give birth to science?

The Church recovered the classical academy—Plato and Aristotle and so forth. As for unfettered debate, under university atheism, it is becoming nearly extinct in many faculties, due to disbelief in the reality of the mind. Read More ›

L& FP41: Dawkins, Krauss and trying to pull a world out of “no-thing”

As Cardinal Pell has been recently cleared, perhaps some may be willing to learn from this telling vid: No, Virginia, you do not get a world from no-thing. END

Sabine Hossenfelder says predictions are overrated; Rob Sheldon responds

Sheldon: … ironically, most of Sabine's blogs are about the poor predictive power in particle theory, but in this blog she feels she has to reverse herself to defend the good name of global warming. My advice to her is to stick with what she has first-hand knowledge of, because 2nd-hand knowledge always suffers from authoritarian bias. Read More ›

Science philosopher Imre Lakatos (1922-1974) on how science fails

In other words, on this view, string theory and Darwinism could be said to be waiting for that giant breakthrough that overwhelms all the preceding nonsense. In that case, it all comes down to who they can get to wait with them. Are they important people or not? And can they successfully suppress alternatives? Read More ›