In his 2008 book, The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding, philosopher Mark Johnson makes a strong argument that "meaning is grounded in the body" (p. 274). That assertion, however, invites the question: "What is a human "body"? Johnson implores us to not slip into mind/body dualism. He…
Topic: Proposed change to comment policy concerning ill-informed comments regarding A) the scientific method and B) evolution by natural selection. At DI, we’ve had a wide-open comment policy. Until recently, I have rarely rejected comments. The ones I have rejected consisted mostly of preaching (see the current comment policy). I’ve…
I ran across this interesting post recently on Deltoid concerning a list of (supposedly) 650 "scientists" who deny Global Warming is real (or at least, that it's our fault in any way). Inhofe, of course, is Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, champion of one of the brightest red states in…
We are about to do a 180 on government attitude toward science. Barack Obama specifically singles out the "scientific process," and urges that we need to listen to scientists "especially when it's inconvenient." [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlXNrBxM0g&eurl=http://bite-dose.com/science/obama-abandoning-science-fiction-as-he-announces-%E2%80%9Cscience-team%E2%80%9D/[/youtube]
In this 2006 lecture at TED, philosopher Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell) takes on the "brilliant" contemporary redesign of religion by Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life. After acknowledging that Warren's book is, indeed, "brilliant" (it has sold 30 million copies and motivated comparable numbers of people), Dennett…