Jerry Coyne as a new post up on free will. One of the recurrent arguments made by free-will “compatibilists” (i.e., those who see free will as being compatible with physical determinism), is that those of us who are incompatibilists—in my case, I think people conceive of free will as reflecting a dualistic “ghost in the … Continue reading Free will and determinism are separate issues
Tag: Jerry Coyne
Free will and the value of compatibilism
With the essays traded between Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, free will is back in the web conversation. I wasn't planning on making another free will post myself, having been mostly satisfied with my previous statement on it. But I've had a few conversations lately, both here on the site and in some other mediums, that … Continue reading Free will and the value of compatibilism
The Marionette’s Lament : A Response to Daniel Dennett : : Sam Harris
Dear Dan— I’d like to begin by thanking you for taking the time to review Free Will at such length. Publicly engaging me on this topic is certainly preferable to grumbling in private. Your writing is admirably clear, as always, which worries me in this case, because we appear to disagree about a great many … Continue reading The Marionette’s Lament : A Response to Daniel Dennett : : Sam Harris
Politics and money equal bad science
Jerry Coyne blogged yesterday about the trend in articles pointing out the flaws in science, noting that most of the observed problems are in medical studies, most notably in drug studies, and that generalizing these problems to all of science isn't really accurate or fair. I agree, but I have an observation about why some … Continue reading Politics and money equal bad science
Free will? Free of what?
The concept of free will is intimately tangled up with the idea of responsibility. Are you responsible for your actions? To what degree are your actions predetermined? If they are predetermined, how can we hold anyone accountable for their actions? Does the idea of moral responsibility even make sense? Libertarian free will The classic definition … Continue reading Free will? Free of what?
‘Just Babies – The Origins of Good and Evil,’ by Paul Bloom – NYTimes.com
Is morality innate? In his new book, “Just Babies,” the psychologist Paul Bloom draws from his research at the Yale Infant Cognition Center to argue that “certain moral foundations are not acquired through learning. . . . They are instead the products of biological evolution.” Infants may be notoriously difficult to study (rats and pigeons … Continue reading ‘Just Babies – The Origins of Good and Evil,’ by Paul Bloom – NYTimes.com
David Dobbs mucks up evolution, part II « Why Evolution Is True
David Dobbs mucks up evolution, part II « Why Evolution Is True. The second part of Jerry Coyne's response to David Dobb's Aeon piece on the problems with the selfish gene metaphor. Be sure to read Dobb's extended response in the comment section. Maybe I'm misreading, but Dobb's appears to be backpedaling significantly from the … Continue reading David Dobbs mucks up evolution, part II « Why Evolution Is True
David Dobbs mucks up evolution, part I « Why Evolution Is True
At any rate, Dobb’s goal is several fold. First, he wants to claim that the metaphor of the selfish gene is wrong. Second, he wants to show that it’s wrong because new understanding of gene regulation—how genes turn on and off during development—render the selfish gene metaphor passé. Finally, he claims that a new theory, … Continue reading David Dobbs mucks up evolution, part I « Why Evolution Is True
Atheists should be tolerant of religion
Recently, there was an NPR story by Marcelo Gleiser on how scientists should respond to people's anxiety about science and God. Jerry Coyne responded in a post asking if faith should ever not be contested (excluding dying grandmothers and such). In his response, Coyne referred to a famous quote by Karl Marx. Religious suffering is, at one … Continue reading Atheists should be tolerant of religion
SelfAwarePatterns 