Pierre Duhem was, among other things, a physicist, a philosopher, and a Roman Catholic apologist for the persecutors of Galileo. From this last point, I expect most of you readers would assume I despise him, but I honestly have more mixed feelings: while I think he’s dead-wrong to say that sound philosophy supports Galielo’s persecutors [...]
Category Archives: epistemology
The third son convention
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 9, 2009
3 comments
In a not-so-famous passage in his famous paper “The New Riddle of Induction” (which gave us the words Grue and Bleen) Nelson Goodman claimed that: That a given piece of copper conducts electricity increases the credibility of statements asserting that other pieces of coper conduct electricity, and thus confirms the hypothesis that all copper conducts [...]
The “yo mama” response to the argument from religious experience
Posted by Chris Hallquist on October 31, 2009
5 comments
From sometimes-commenter here Joshua Blanchard: I do not feel as certain about God’s existence as I do about my mother’s existence. In fact, I feel much less certain about God’s existence than my mother’s existence. For example, I can’t even imagine a plausible explanation for my experiences if it turns out my mother doesn’t exist. [...]
Taking an idea seriously
Posted by Chris Hallquist on October 27, 2009
1 comment
Jerry Coyne asks what this means, and proposes two meanings “accepting that the ideas may be credible” and “realizing that these ideas have a real impact on society.” Coyne thinks religious ideas should be taken seriouly in the second sense but not the first. I’m tempted to cheer Coyne on, but (1) there’s another important [...]