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A group of bloggers discussing philosophical ideas as well as the profession of philosophy
Browsing All Posts filed under »Philosophy of Science«
The Gould (I) Files #2
What’s the ‘I’ for you ask? It’s Friday night. TGIF folks. I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss archival work because I’ve caught archive-fever, as it were. I recently read “Blue Years: An Ethnography of a Prison Archive” by Angela Garcia (Stanford University) published in Cultural Anthropology. Actually, I was fortunate enough to listen […]
Causes in Real Life – How Organizations Perform a Root Cause Analyses (RCA)
July 19, 2018 by Mike Steiner
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Having spent considerable time studying the vexing problems related to causation in philosophy, I was immediately intrigued when I learned that companies and other organizations routinely engage in or perform what they call root cause analyses (RCAs). I recently had the opportunity to take the courses and training in order to perform RCAs, and have […]
The Technological Progress of CRISPR-Cas9
May 24, 2018 by janellabaxter
A common misconception about technological advancement is that they are ahistorical revolutions (Cook 1995). On this narrative, technological innovations emerge suddenly, without competition from other extant technologies, and are solely responsible for ushering in rapid, widespread social change. This misconception not only fails to account for the crucial social, political, and moral values that often […]
Science, Reality, and Objectivity
May 22, 2018 by oliverlean
Our research project team members here in Calgary have spent the last several months reading (and re-reading) Bas van Fraassen’s subtle and powerful work Scientific Representation (2008). As with any work of its scope and ambition, it’s open to a heavy dose of interpretation. What follows is my interpretation, and I’ll stress that it is particularly […]
Russell and Philosophy in Real Life
May 10, 2018 by Alison K McConwell
Bertrand Russell (May 18th 1872-February 2nd 1970) writes in the prologue of his autobiography “What I Have Lived For”: Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and […]
7th Annual University of Calgary Graduate Philosophy Conference
November 8, 2017 by Celso Neto
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The topic of the 2018 University of Calgary Graduate Philosophy Conference is the Philosophy of Biology broadly construed. The aim of the conference is to explore the newest work at the intersection between philosophy and life and medical sciences. We welcome submissions from philosophers and biologists, and have no restrictions concerning preferred topics or approaches […]
Philosopher-Scientists, Scientist-Philosophers and Philosopher- Philosophers: An Exercise in Futurology
April 17, 2017 by Celso Neto
Futurology comprises the study of possible futures and, as such, it is a cheap thing: it does not require much to speculate about how things can be in the years to come. Futurology also produces inaccurate predictions most of the time, which could render this post useless. Nevertheless, here I am concerned with the future […]
Cognitive Dissonance and Philosophy
April 5, 2017 by Mike Steiner
I want to first give credit to the authors of “Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)” – Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Their talk of cognitive dissonance and the metaphor of the ‘pyramid of choice’ has inspired my comments below. Although the ideas in this book have obvious ramifications for psychology, psychotherapy, political science, […]
Teaching as a Grad Student: Philosophy of Science
January 25, 2017 by Alison K McConwell
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Thanks to Aaron for starting this series. There are particular challenges that grad students might face as instructors, some of which I imagine are exclusive to grad students, whereas others could probably be generalized to new professors on the track. And perhaps in my case, grad students, new professors on the track, and maybe even […]
Call for Applications: A Summer Program in Philosophy of Science for Underrepresented Groups
December 22, 2016 by Alison K McConwell
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Recently the Center for Philosophy of Science released a call for applications for the Pittsburgh Summer Program: A Summer Program in Philosophy of Science for Underrepresented Groups. This will take place from July 10th to July 14th, 2017. Applications are due March 1st. Notably, costs concerning housing, meals, and transportation will be covered. A CV, […]
Kinds and Classification: Why the Gun Control and Canine Profiling Analogy Breaks Down
October 14, 2016 by Alison K McConwell
Though this post is partly in response to comments on my previous post concerning breed specific legislation from Mike Steiner, a fellow APT contributor, this is now, in effect, also a response to Yvevs Boisvert’s post for the Globe and Mail. Now is a timely moment to discuss the analogy between pit bulls and guns […]
On Breed Specific Legislation, Public Safety, and Why The Research Matters
July 16, 2016 by Alison K McConwell
There is recent nation-wide attention to animal control issues concerning dogs in Canada. The target is “pit bulls” or dogs with traits that resemble particular characteristics of breeds included in this generic term. One common response to serious dog bites and maulings is to lobby for a ban of particular breeds by enacting Breed Specific […]
Stephen Jay Gould’s Weak Argument For Science And Religion’s ‘Separate Domains’
May 11, 2016 by Justin Caouette
Originally posted on Samir Chopra:
Stephen Jay Gould‘s famous ‘Two Separate Domains‘ argues, roughly, that religion and science operate in different domains of inquiry, and as such do not conflict with each other: We get the age of rocks, and religion retains the rock of ages; we study how the heavens go, and they determine…
Why Is Biological Individuality So Strange?
February 3, 2016 by Alison K McConwell
If you find questions of biological individuality peculiar, then this post is for you. Biological individuality is an area of special interest. Classic individuality principles lurk in the background—philosophers of biology are still concerned with how to carve up a particular domain into basic units and with how to tell those units apart. There may […]
Two Senses of Individuality
November 2, 2015 by Alison K McConwell
Recently, David Wallace-Wells published “Adventures in the Science of the Superorganism” found here. He uses impressive examples to motivate the problem of biological individuality, such as one twin ingesting the embryo of the other twin in utero, the trillions of gut bacteria that house themselves within us, viruses and diseases that colonize our DNA, and […]
The Science-Pseudoscience Demarcation Problem
October 14, 2015 by Justin Caouette
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Source: The science-pseudoscience demarcation problem
Books by Contributors
A Philosopher's Take 
March 9, 2019 by Alison K McConwell
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