why we should

confusing the forest for the trees, the word for the tree and the phrase for the forest © 2024 meika loofs samorzewski In a lump of the world we call taxonomy people are split into lumpers and splitters. A "lumper" is a person who assigns examples broadly, judging that differences are not as important as signature similarities. A "splitter" makes…

A list of reactions to other evolution~morality papers and chapters and stuff can be found at the linkpost Reactions to papers on evolution~morality. This reaction looks at the following piece: Cartwright, John. “Naturalising Ethics: The Implications of Darwinism for the Study of Moral Philosophy.” Science & Education Vol. 19 (2009): 407–443. via academia.edu [DOI 10.1007/s11191-009-9205-7] [https://www.academia.edu/94896217/Naturalising_Ethics_The_Implications_of_Darwinism_for_the_Study_of_Moral_Philosophy] From the abstract: Standard…

This post has mainly been “prompted” by becoming aware of some “prior art” by Arthur Boyd, though one of the main stories was inspired by a conversation with Julie Gough. Reposted from substack July 2023. Arthur Boyd’s Jinker on a Sandbank, Shoalhaven (1976) oil on canvas. In Cormac Orthography, more or less, I introduced my position on punctuation, and in…

This was first posted as part 1 & 2 on substack. Ronald Cicurel, and Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, The Relativistic Brain: How It Works and Why It Cannot by Simulated by a Turing Machine (Natal: Kios Press, 2015 ISBN 9781511617024) Hat tip. Martin Ciupa of mindmaze.com At the time of writing in July 2023, there were some Douglas R. Hofstadter…

A list of reactions to other evolution~morality papers and chapters and stuff can be found at Reactions to papers on evolution~morality. Arvan, Marcus. “Morality as an Evolutionary Exaptation.” 2021. via academia.edu. Web. This is a preprint of a chapter published in Johan De Smedt & Helen De Cruz & (eds.), Empirically Engaged Evolutionary Ethics, Springer – Synthese Library. The final…

Over a decade after it came out I finally have had a gander at Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (2011). It’s a fine introduction. I tend to agree with what bits I read about empire. It tells a good story. What’s wrong with that…? Apparently all that co-operation we do, Harari says (from that wikipedia link) (and that…