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I suppose this is where environmental contingencies come into play; the evolution of the eye for example - a common example of convergent evolution - ...
September 16, 2017 at 08:13
Another way to think about this, if you're interested, is in terms of the topological properties that characterize such a landscape. Two parameters in...
September 16, 2017 at 05:39
I mean differentiated rather in the sense of symmetry groups, where groups are defined (read: differentiated) by their invariance under rotation. If o...
September 15, 2017 at 17:02
I refer you to the given reasons as to why the initial post was deleted. The first reason alone, by the way, qualified it for deletion as far as I was...
September 15, 2017 at 13:48
Ha, this is a wonderfully provocative way of putting it, but I think it's pushing the semantic boundaries a bit to say that all species are ultimately...
September 15, 2017 at 11:45
Look into genotype networks! This is exactly the challenge it aims to ameliorate: http://www.molecularecologist.com/2015/02/bigger-on-the-inside/ A te...
September 15, 2017 at 09:42
The PM you're referring to - about insults - was sent four days ago regarding your interactions with other posters in other threads, and has nothing t...
September 15, 2017 at 07:55
Dude, the entire OP was a discussion of intentionality with respect to an imagined court case. The very words 'evolution' and 'universe' quite literal...
September 15, 2017 at 06:54
Nothing of what I have written or cited has anything to do with psychology. The field drawn upon is dynamic systems theory, which is indeed worth a lo...
September 14, 2017 at 16:52
Nope, false again: "But to repeat, the environment does not function as a trigger the way behaviorism would have it. The agent's own dynamics, albeit ...
September 14, 2017 at 14:17
Ooof.
September 14, 2017 at 13:09
No. Sticking with Jurerro as our exemplar, she is explicit about this: any intention is ultimately governed by a control loop that runs circuitously f...
September 14, 2017 at 13:04
Perhaps you should consult the scientific literature before putting words in it's proverbial mouth. There are most certainly scientific approaches to ...
September 14, 2017 at 12:39
http://images.musictimes.com/data/images/full/61891/matthew-perry-as-chandler-bing-in-friends.png The Chandler?
September 14, 2017 at 11:31
Literally cannot fathom that! I buy a book every fortnight... and then there are days like today.
September 14, 2017 at 10:59
My evening: Walk into bookstore. Don't buy books dont buy books dont buy books you have too many books dont buy books. Buys three books.
September 14, 2017 at 10:16
I'm not sure what you mean by 'didn't really fit' - fit what? For what purpose? Just remember that 'survival of the of the fittest' is just a phrase u...
September 13, 2017 at 09:33
The term is relational of course - what is adequate depends on the environment in which a species finds itself. The idea is that evolution has conting...
September 12, 2017 at 15:56
Again, it's not survival of the fittest but survival of the adequate. And as for other factors, again, to list: sexual selection, niche construction, ...
September 12, 2017 at 15:31
And of course we don't need 'mind' and 'life' to work against entropy because entropy already works against itself (in the form of mind and life, amon...
September 12, 2017 at 12:12
The trick is to think in terms of genotype and phenotype instead of simply alleles, because what matters is not just any variation, but heritable vari...
September 12, 2017 at 12:06
A preliminary point: despite the popularity of the phrase, natural selection does not select for 'the fittest', but for the 'fit enough'. That is, evo...
September 12, 2017 at 11:22
Peter Brain and Ian Manning - Credit Code Red: How Financial Deregulation and World Instability are Exposing Australia to Economic Catastrophe Some li...
September 12, 2017 at 01:31
I guess any situation in which all environmental variables are kept stable - ceteris paribus conditions. Such conditions by definition force unitary e...
September 09, 2017 at 05:25
I think part of the problem is that neither phenomena nor the explanations that account for them are unitary things: different aspects of any one phen...
September 09, 2017 at 02:35
Yeah, this is unfortunately true. I'd suggest that a large part of the problem is social and political rather than merely intellectual however: the hu...
September 04, 2017 at 06:48
True, but if anything I think the trick is to simply ignore them when possible, and focus on the much more fulfilling and positive work of looking for...
September 04, 2017 at 06:14
I don't see the necessity of pitching philosphy and science in an antagonistic relationship, and if anything the strange animus towards science in the...
September 04, 2017 at 03:23
One of my fav nerd jokes: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bq5pt_NIEAEjUAg.png
September 04, 2017 at 03:03
Imma say tie between crop rotation and sanitation systems, with penicillin just after. Although the fridge and the printing press are also my favourit...
September 03, 2017 at 10:31
Melinda Cooper - Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era Nikolas Rose - The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, a...
September 02, 2017 at 06:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xad5Rl0N2E This thread.
August 30, 2017 at 05:48
http://i66.tinypic.com/25pn4b5.jpg There we go.
August 25, 2017 at 11:03
I suppose resignation itself doesn't necessarily have to have a negative hue, to the extent that one can resign oneself to play by the rules, and be a...
August 24, 2017 at 09:20
Yeah, this. 'It is what it is' is usually a statement of resignation, or inability to affect a change -powerlessness, as you put it. It tends to stand...
August 24, 2017 at 07:36
As a heuristic I'd imagine a good woman is one who thinks a thread like this is bullshit.
August 24, 2017 at 02:39
Can't speak for the Admins, but I'm 90% sure re: mods.
August 23, 2017 at 10:14
Moved. It's no longer possible to view the post.
August 23, 2017 at 09:43
I nominated the thread for deletion on the grounds that (1) it cited no sources, (2) it did not acknowledge the contentiousness of regarding IQ as a p...
August 23, 2017 at 06:48
The trick with studying philosophy is that you actually have to practice it in some way - that is, write out or even just hash out arguments in a way ...
August 22, 2017 at 06:22
Another way to think about 'construction' - to crib a wonderful formulation from Stanley Cavell - is that it bears not upon a thing's being so, but up...
August 21, 2017 at 13:16
I'd want to argue that if you're having to try and prevent a totalitarian leader form being elected, then your democracy has already failed, or has be...
August 20, 2017 at 10:50
Walter Kaufman's Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist is the usual go-to study, though it's a little dated now. As is Alexander Nehamas's ...
August 19, 2017 at 02:06
One wonderful thing about not having an ignore feature is that now I'm disciplined enough to ignore people all by my lonesome. It's lovely.
August 18, 2017 at 15:06
I don't see any reason not to talk about Kevin, provided it's a discussion with a minimum of substance - i.e. no boorish name calling and insult throw...
August 17, 2017 at 16:49
Coming to a bookstore near you.
August 15, 2017 at 19:09
Feel free to have a proper whinge when you actually get modded by me. In the meantime, I couldn't care less about your fantasy-victimhood.
August 15, 2017 at 18:53
Even if it is granted that there are average differences of testosterone levels between the sexes, this too needs to be complicated by the fact that t...
August 15, 2017 at 18:35
The van Anders study cited in the psychology today blog - if you bothered to read it - is all about how behaviour regulates testosterone. This is how ...
August 15, 2017 at 17:00
No, I don't, because conspiracy theorists are nutjobs.
August 15, 2017 at 10:44