Good vs. bad scientific questions
The scientific method is a kind of general truth generating approach that involves: Making some claim (hypothesis) in clear enough language (clarity) ... ... that some observation can be done…
How much should we trust medicine? Review of Medical Nihilism (Jacob Stegenga)
There's a few main types of broad-side science criticism: Lowbrow religiously motivated typically focused on denial of biology (evolution) but sometimes expanding widely Verbal tilt philosophy, usually some brand of…
The Undark race science summary
For months, some journalist called Ashley Smart has been emailing me for quotes for some upcoming hit piece. E.g., back form January: Hi Emil, I'm a journalist with Undark Magazine, and…
Scientists should be allowed to recommend their own peer reviewers
Leo Tiokhin has a post up arguing the opposite of the title of my post. His argument is that a number of studies find that reviewers suggested by authors provide…
The ‘Hereditarians bad people’ objection
Bo Winegard has a thread on this piece here. I didn't know about it at the time of writing. Boomer woman journalist Cathy Young has a new piece out: The…
Book review: Why Trust Science? (Naomi Oreskes)
So why trust science? I would say I am a proud supporter of scientism, crude versions aside. Naomi Oreskes is a prominent science historian who mostly writes history books attacking…
Sesardić’s conjecture: preliminary evidence in favor
In Making sense of Heritability (2005), Sesardić wrote: On the less obvious side, a nasty campaign against H could have the unintended effect of strengthening H [hereditarianism] epistemically, and making…
Genius: The Natural History of Creativity (Hans Eysenck, 1995)
Eysenck, H. J. (1995). Genius: The natural history of creativity (Vol. 12). Cambridge University Press. The book is on LibGen I continue my Eysenck readings with his popular genius book…
Hereditarianism: a progressive research program
I am posting this because this is not widely known, but I think this angle should be taken more seriously. I hope philosophers will read this and get inspired! Urbach,…
Book review: The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect (Judea Pearl, Dana Mackenzie)
Pearl, J., & Mackenzie, D. (2018). The book of why: the new science of cause and effect. Basic Books. This is an interesting but annoying book. The basic pattern of…