Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Scientism

  • Stephen Hawking and Bad Philosophy

    With the passing of physicist Stephen Hawking, the encomia are rolling in. Hawking no doubt deserves most of the tributes and accolades he is receiving. But a bit of balance is in order: we should not forget the bad philosophy he has promoted.  Herewith, a repost from 9 October 2010, slightly redacted. I was initially…

  • When Physicists Get Physical: A Tale of Sex and Scientism

    Allegedly, Lawrence Krauss is a sexual predator. I'll leave it to you to decide which is worse, his philosophical incompetence or his sexual predation. Both are forms of seduction, one cerebral, the other carnal.

  • Scientism, Underbelief, and Overbelief

    The secular nail their colors to the mast of scientism.  Or most of them do.  Their attitude is an amalgam of underbelief and overbelief.  Their underbelief is their belief that science alone is genuine knowledge.  Their overbelief is that this is so – – when it is plain that it is not something known scientifically.…

  • First Philosophy or Scientism?

    I was going to add to this old draft from 15 December 2009, but it looks like I won't be getting around to it. So here it is. …………………………. Robert Cummins (Meaning and Mental Representation, MIT Press, 1989, p. 12) regards it as a mistake "for philosophers to address the question of mental representation in…

  • A Physicist’s Petitio Principii

    One of my self-appointed tasks is to beat up on physicists when they play at philosophy and makes fools of themselves.  The following is from an interview with Richard Muller in Physics Today: PT: You mention in your introduction that some physicists have concluded that the flow of time is an illusion. Why do you…

  • Poor Barry Manilow

    Here: In an experiment published in 2000, the psychologist Thomas Gilovich and his colleagues asked undergraduates to wear a piece of clothing that they found embarrassing—a t-shirt with a picture of singer-songwriter Barry Manilow on it. After putting on the shirt, the undergraduates had to spend some time in a room with other students and…

  • Scientism

    I am tired of refuting this species of bushwa.  Let somebody else do it. We humans naturally philosophize.  But we don't naturally philosophize well.  So when science journalists and scientists try their hands at it they often make a mess of it.  (See my Scientism category for plenty of examples.) This is why there is…

  • Free Will Meets Neuroscience

    Here is an excerpt from Alfred R. Mele, Free Will: Action Theory Meets Neuroscience In a recent article, Libet writes: "it is only the final ‘act now’ process that produces the voluntary act. That ‘act now’ process begins in the brain about 550 msec before the act, and it begins unconsciously" (2001, p. 61).10 "There…

  • Wisdom from Putnam on Science and Scientism

    Here is a repost from 2009 in observance of the passing of the distinguished Harvard philosopher.  Please note: 'Hilary,' not 'Hillary.' ………………………………. Hilary Putnam, Mathematics, Matter and Method (Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. xiii (emphasis added): . . . I regard science as an important part of man's knowledge of reality; but there is a…

  • Edward Feser on Jerry A. Coyne

    In  Omnibus of Fallacies, Ed Feser applies his formidable analytic and polemical skills to that sorry specimen of scientism, Jerry Coyne.  The First Things review begins like this: Faith versus Fact is some kind of achievement. Biologist Jerry Coyne has managed to write what might be the worst book yet published in the New Atheist…

  • More Scientistic Bullshit

    Yet another exercise in silly scientism.  Shut up already with this stuff.  I've refuted this genre of crap too many times before. Here is a sample: Bull Meets Shovel: Could Consciousness be a Conjuring Trick? Related articles On the Scientism Front Angst and the Empty Set

  • Lawrence Krauss

    His latest outburst sullies the pages of The New Yorker. When readers brought it to my attention, I thought I might write a response, but then thought better about wasting my time, once again, on a fool and his foolishness.  And now I see that my efforts are unnecessary: Edward Feser has done the job…

  • Why Physics Needs Philosophy

    A short piece by Tim Maudlin. Good as far as it goes, but it doesn't go deep enough.  Maudlin rightly opposes the "reigning attitude": The reigning attitude in physics has been “shut up and calculate”: solve the equations, and do not ask questions about what they mean.  But putting computation ahead of conceptual clarity can…

  • Physicist George Ellis on Physicist and Pseudo-Philosopher Lawrence Krauss

    From Scientific American, 22 July 2014 (HT: Karl White), emphasis added: Horgan: Lawrence Krauss, in A Universe from Nothing, claims that physics has basically solved the mystery of why there is something rather than nothing. Do you agree? Ellis: Certainly not.  He is presenting untested speculative theories of how things came into existence out of…

  • Jerry Coyne’s Latest Outburst re: Pope Francis, Big Bang and Evolution

    It doesn't merit a lot of attention, but I will mention two stupid moves that Jerry  Coyne makes.  Or if not stupid, then intellectually dishonest.  First, Coyne states that "We know now that the universe could have originated from 'nothing' through purely physical processes, if you see 'nothing' as the 'quantum vacuum' of empty space." …