Philosophy – Page 99 – William M. Briggs

Entry For The Most Pompous Statement Of Scientism

Our friend John Cook came (via The Renaissance Mathematicus) across what is easily one of the most pompous declarations by a scientist we have ever seen. The words came from…

Philosophy Statistics

What Is And What We Know Of It, Probabilistically Speaking

Ontology is the study of what is and what is not. Epistemology is the study of our knowledge of what is and what is not. Though there are obvious points…

Book review Philosophy

Author Says Machines Will Take Over The World

At the Singularity awaits The Beast. Or so says James Barrat in Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era (Yours Truly only read the free…

Culture Philosophy

Could A Virgin Birth Ever Really Happen?

In an article Salon mistitled "About that 'immaculate' conception"1---the immaculate conception speaks of St Mary's entry into the world, not Jesus's---Daniel Engber, a developmental neuroscientist at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, gives us…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Friedrich A. Hayek’s Lecture “The Pretense of Knowledge”

This was reprinted in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. I've chopped it into parts for commenting. To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the…

Philosophy Statistics

What Random Means In Random Number Generation

Thinking about one-time pads reminded me to point this out. It's simple, really. A "random" number generator spits out a string of numbers or characters from some set, say c1,…

Fun Philosophy

Winner Announced in What Do You Call A Believer In Scientism Contest

More than 50 people entered some 100 words. I grouped these into three-plus-one categories: Honorable Mentions, Runner Ups, and Top 10. But there can be only one! Winner, that is,…

Fun Philosophy

What Do You Call Believer in Scientism? Contest

Toby Young at the Spectator ran this tweet yesterday: https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/402545969956261888 The text (if you can't see) reads: "Is there a name for people who think reason and research evidence alone…

Brian (bulaoren) on Marbles!June 24, 2026
For the past 48 hours, I've been considering a fundamental, structural, problem with marbles; " Marmorism". Some people will accumulate…
John Pate on Marbles!June 23, 2026
Marbles was a thing in my primary school in Cambridge, England in the sixties. I don't recall girls ever playing…
Jess on Marbles!June 23, 2026
Somewhere, I have my brother's bag of marbles. I sometimes think I should go through them to see if there…
Cary D Cotterman on Marbles!June 23, 2026
In the summer of 1960, in Fresno, California, I lost my promotional "KYNO Top-Dog Radio" boulder in a game of…
Brian (bulaoren) on Marbles!June 23, 2026
Briggs! Have you lost your marbles? (somebody had to say it) When I was a little kid, I was nuts…