Philosophy – Page 123 – William M. Briggs

Diversity Is Not Always Desirable: Part I

I will continue to be away from the computer until (I think) this Thursday. So here is a corrected and amplified classic series, which originally ran in December 2010. Diversity…

Culture Philosophy

Squirrel Arrested For Stealing Nuts: Nonhuman Rights Entail Nonhuman Responsibilities

Wesley Smith writes at the Weekly Standard: [T]he annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted a panel supporting the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans, which…

Philosophy

Good Friday: Rally For Reason With St Anselm’s Ontological Argument

It's Good Friday, an excellent time to prove---I use this word in its logical sense---that many people come to religion through rational argument. We earlier this week examined the so-called…

Culture Fun Philosophy

The Reason Rally Fizzles

An army; well, a brigade; or anyway at least a couple of battalions of Brights milled around the mall in Washington DC on March 24---various estimates gave "highs are around…

Philosophy Statistics

The Humble Tautology And Probability

Start with the premises P1 = "All men are mortal" and P2 = "Socrates is a man" and from them we want to know the status of the conclusion C…

Philosophy

Bioengineering Humans To Combat Climate Change

Aren't bioethicists a fun bunch? When last we met this speculative crew, they were wondering whether we should "let baby live", and they were developing a pill to eliminate racism.…

Book review Philosophy

The Universe Created From Nothing Says Lawrence Krauss

This fragment of conversation was reported to me by a reliable witness. It occurred between a gentlemen we will call "Daffy" and Lawrence M. Krauss upon the occasion of the…

Philosophy Statistics

Bayes Theorem Proves Jesus Existed And Didn’t Exist

In his shockingly neglected, A Treatise on Probability John Maynard Keynes put his finger on the difficulty people have with probability, particularly Bayes's Theorem: No other formula in the alchemy…

Greg Ostman on New Paper Says Flu Vax Increases Chance Of Flu: Let’s LookMay 14, 2025
All Astro physics to me but how about just take the numbers of vaxed and unvaxed then see how many…
Paul Murphy on The Nuances and Challenges of Federal Funding for Research — Guest Post by An AcademicMay 14, 2025
Wow, what is that the naive outsider's view? In reality: 1 - you don't get tenure unless your name is…
cdquarles on The Nuances and Challenges of Federal Funding for Research — Guest Post by An AcademicMay 14, 2025
It is laughable that the premise that "commercial" funding of research is corrupting, but government funding isn't. What was that…
cdquarles on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 14, 2025
Bingo, SSG Briggs. List for me, in order of mass with the most mass first, all of the chemicals in…
hudbwu on Academics Call Pregnancy A DiseaseMay 13, 2025
A moment of silence for all the pain and suffering Briggs endured to bring us this comedic piece. Trully, greatest…