Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Observational Versus Controlled Trials
Received this email from a reader: I took on board all I read on your website, and it has created confusion in my mind. I have been reading Ioannidis and…
Posted inPhilosophy
Dawkins Gets It Wrong Again: Similar Is Not The Same
Richard Dawkins in an article to the New Statesman---the same issue which somebody who obviously wasn't in full possession of his faculties assigned to Dawkins as editor---the Christmas issue, mind---an…
Posted inFun Philosophy
Thomas Aquinas & Philosophical Realism
Dozens of big brains, and one fat head held aloft by Yours Truly, crammed into a small room yesterday to hear all there was to know, more or less, about…
Posted inCulture Philosophy Statistics
Obamacare Predictions: How’d We Do So Far?
One of life's real pleasures, though it lessens us to admit it, is when we get to say I told you so. Nobody in the world, except those who believe…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Students Eschewing Humanities In Favor Of Science
The Times is reporting that students are high-tailing it away from the humanities, scurrying into "STEM" departments. STEM is the educational buzzword of the day---theorists in education surf from fad…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Why Falsifiability, Though Flawed, Is Alluring: Part I
A theory is said not to be scientific unless it is falsifiable. This is an understandable definition, but as something philosophically useful it fails because most theories scientists hold are…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Tea Partiers Know As Much Science As Enlightened Lefties?
So this Dan Kahan, Yale prof of something-or-other, devised himself a science quiz. "The center of the Earth is very hot [true/false]." That sort of thing. He gave the quiz's…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Anti-Human Leader: Every Woman, Everywhere, Could Have Contraception
"Isn't she pretty. What's her name?" "Susan. After my grandmother." "Have you had her fixed yet?" Don't fret! That's a conversation you won't be hearing. Because why? Because, of course,…