Last week was scientism week at Scientia Salon, and I reblogged a post by Coel Hellier on a defense of scientism, mostly by arguing that mathematics was actually part of science. As I indicated in my comment on that reblog, while I agree with Coel that both logic and mathematics have foundations that are empirically … Continue reading Is logic and mathematics part of science?
Tag: Rationally Speaking
Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
I’ve been reading for a while now Jim Baggott’s Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth, a fascinating tour through cutting edge theoretical physics, led by someone with a physics background and a healthy (I think) dose of skepticism about the latest declarations from string theorists and the like. … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
Do we all do science?
Massimo Pigluici has a cartoon response up on Rationally Speaking in reply to Sam Harris' Edge response. Harris thinks that science is defined too narrowly, is suspicious of talk of the limits of science, and sees the distinction between science, philosophy, and history as illusory. Massimo sees this as too broad. I may be missing … Continue reading Do we all do science?
Rationally Speaking: What virtues, and why?
At any rate, what I’d like to do here is to explore a bit more of my own preferred framework for ethics, neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics (the “neo” prefix should alert the reader that I’m not about to defend everything Aristotle said, but rather discuss an updated version of the idea, based of course on his … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: What virtues, and why?
Rationally Speaking: Rationally Speaking cartoon: Evidence & Reason
via Rationally Speaking: Rationally Speaking cartoon: Evidence & Reason. Click through to see a enlarged version. This succinctly mirrors my earlier comments on a post Massimo made a while back expressing frustration on a relative's unwillingness to see logic. Sometimes the logical thing to do is to recognize that logic won't work. Related articles Rationally Speaking … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: Rationally Speaking cartoon: Evidence & Reason
Do mathematics model real world patterns?
I've recently seen a couple of interesting posts pondering to what degree mathematics models actual real world objects. For an upcoming episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast, Massimo Pigliucci and Julia Galef interviewed Max Tegmark, who seems to believe that all of reality is ultimately mathematical. Note that Tegmark doesn't mean that it is precisely described … Continue reading Do mathematics model real world patterns?
Countering emotion with logic is often not effective
Massimo Pigliucci posted yesterday: Rationally Speaking: Irrationality, a personal study, his personal frustration in a conversation with a relative who, despite being a fairly rational person, had an emotional aversion to gay marriage. Massimo lamented the difficulty in convincing people to approach things rationally. I think trying to counter emotional positions with logic is a tricky … Continue reading Countering emotion with logic is often not effective
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