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…

Chad Jessup on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
I am very happy for any information you post, so whatever suits your time and interests is fine with me.…
Steve on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
The bikini rule -- less is more, but it has to cover all the important stuff. As with human bodies,…
Heresolong on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
Yes.
Jose Miro Julia on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
I'd prefer 3-4 short ones a week.
Ivdas Machabevs on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 4, 2026
Longer, deeper, rarer.