Non-creationist, non-Darwinist, "third way" theories of evolution.
2 meaning systems compared: Physicalism and Thanatology
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: June 22, 2021 June 22, 2021
- Hits: 1082 1082
Of these two common kinds of meaning, which is primary? I conclude, the latter. So why is evolution confined to the former? More...
No commentsCould reductionism survive loss of Darwinism?
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: May 28, 2021 May 28, 2021
- Hits: 685 685
Making natural selection the deciding factor in whether to go with reductionism or dualism is a risky bet. If natural selection turns out not to be the primary mechanism of evolution, I think the loss to science would shift the debate in favor of dualism. Then the field’s wide open. That’s exciting. Counterfactuality, not so much. Review of Chiara Marletto's "The Science of Can and Can't."
New Meaning from the Humanities
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: May 6, 2021 May 6, 2021
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The job of science is to tell us about the world. The job of the humanities is to tell us about ourselves. In this, the humanities have let us down. A crucial foundation for what we know about ourselves is our origin story but today we get our origin story from science: science’s account of how we evolved. Yes, we evolved. But why has science’s account of how that happened become our official origin story, the only one that may be taught to children at school? That’s purely an accident of history. And it’s one we should set right. It’s up to the humanities to summon up the necessary courage, point out the flaws in the scientific story, come up with a new and better origin story based on us having evolved, and make a case for that origin story supplanting the one pressed on us by science. More...
R.I.P. creationism. Stephen Meyer's "Return..."
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: April 9, 2021 April 9, 2021
- Hits: 777 777
Stephen Meyer’s ”The Return of the God Hypothesis” consists of two interwoven narratives. One, occupying the great bulk of the book, is an exhaustive compilation of every aspect of the physical world that today’s science can’t account for. Let’s refer to that as the text. The other consists of brief comments interspersed within the text suggesting that each of these unknowns can be accounted for better in terms of “intelligent design.” Let’s call that the “commentary.” Apply to that the critical reading needed to appreciate the text, and the commentary fall apart. Meyer lays bare for us the barrenness of creationism’s claims. More...
Philosophy of evolution--new
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: March 16, 2021 March 16, 2021
- Hits: 841 841
Some things are so fundamental as to defy explanation, such as space, time, and physical matter and processes. I suggest we add to them consciousness and evolution. From this could follow an entirely new natural philosophy. More...
Review of Paul Nurse, "What is Life?"
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: March 14, 2021 March 14, 2021
- Hits: 818 818
I’m including my review of Nurse’s book among my category of “Classic” texts both because his eminence and reputation as a scientist are likely to make his book the standard popular guide to evolution, and because I want to draw attention to it as representative of the greatest scandal of modern science, that natural selection should still be talked about as a scientific theory when it better deserves to be recognized as no more than myth and magic and abandoned along with science’s other obsolete theories. More...