As the Worm Turns

So, for any one of my thirty or so readers who thinks that my reduction of politics to psychology seems odd, take a look at this article about a study linking feelings of pleasure to giving money.
Knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your […]

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It’s not that I’m in love with Gonzalez, tenure or Intelligent Design; it’s just that this is the only topic that drives up hits to my pretend blog. So here we go:
Even though PZ Meyers and I agree on all the substantial facts about the world, we disagree about the interpretation of those facts. I […]

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Previously I commented on a neo-creationist mistake about free will; ‘dacook’ on Uncommon Descent was under the impression that the possible discovery of free will in flies was somehow proof that scientific materialism was false.
Here we have the same mistake, but from the other direction: Philip Ball claims that, even if we do discover the […]

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So it turns out that Iowa State University likely acted appropriately in denying Guillermo Gonzalez tenure; the original article (subscription required) is here and a good summary can be found here. In short: Gonalez didn’t produce new stuff after moving to ISU, but tried to get tenure on his research done as a post-doc.
I’m still […]

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On the one hand, the usual suspects cry foul when Guillermo Gonzalez is denied tenure, at least in part because he is an advocate of Intelligent Design.
On the other, those who want to defend the integrity of the Scientific Establishment are just fine with it — denying tenure because a teacher believes odd and peculiar […]

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Tenure is a special thing for everyone involved in academics. It’s a reminder of the power and importance of the role of professors and teachers in society, and of the traditions that uphold that role.
So it’s reasonable to try to protect the institution of tenure from outside attacks by dangerous fools.
But what’s not reasonable is […]

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The problem of Free Will isn’t really my bag, even though the Florida State University philosophy program is highly ranked in the area. But I do know one thing: the existence of free will doesn’t entail the falsity of materialism. So when we find evidence that even lowly insects show signs of free will, this […]

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