Secular, Social, Scientific
Though Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel are generally regarded as the “founders” of sociology as a discipline, sociological theory was actually rooted in nineteenth-century culture as intellectuals and scientists attempted to make sense... Read More | Share it now!
Gibt es das Masernvirus? 2011 lobte Stefan Lanka, in Szenekreisen bekannter deutscher Impfgegner, ein Preisgeld in Höhe von €100.000 aus für den wissenschaftlichen Nachweis des Masernvirus. Die Ausschreibung fand ein internationales Medienecho,... Read More | Share it now!
Objectivity has a history, and it is full of surprises. In Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison chart the emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences—and show how the concept differs from its alternatives,... Read More | Share it now!
This page is an open series of entries on the Bardens vs. Lanka case. It has been of wider interest since had immediately offered the judgments in the case triggered by Stefan Lanka‘s challenge of 2011 (see documents at the bottom of this... Read More | Share it now!
Stephen LeDrew’s Book on the Evolution of Atheism has apparently asked the right questions – if I read Patrik Lindenfors’s considerations at Humanistbloggen correctly. (The Google Translate English version is actually quite readable). What... Read More | Share it now!
An Aeon article dated December 2014 by the late Michael Hanlon is trying to make some apparently interesting points, but when one goes deeper, it becomes plain that his analysis is based on a couple of false premises. As Hanlon argues, it does... Read More | Share it now!
[Click here for the orginal German version of this interview. Follow http://positivists.org/blog/archives/3881 for the successive case documentation. Olaf Simons asked the questions for positivists.org] Olaf Simons: You are in the headlines with an... Read More | Share it now!
[The following interview with David Bardens is also available in a provisional English translation. Die Chronologie des Falles dokumentierten wir auf http://positivists.org/blog/archives/3881 Olaf Simons stellte die Fragen für positivists.org] Olaf... Read More | Share it now!
Why did I ask for all those #LLAP selfies? For a @gishwhes task as a tribute to Leonard. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/3NQZ5siINe — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) August 9, 2015 Leonard Nimoy’s death last month is particularly sad news. He (or... Read More | Share it now!
First published at: http://philosophy-in-figures.tumblr.com/ ... Read More | Share it now!
From the 26th to the 28th of June Ariel Hessayon and Lionel Laborie welcomed about a hundred historians at London’s Goldsmith College to take a broader look at prophecies of the three centuries between 1500 and 1800. Science fiction fans might start... Read More | Share it now!
continuing: Logical positivism debunked (1): The philosophy that cannot even prove that its own statements have a “meaning” In the Laundry. You are handed back your belongings all washed, and you notice that this is not your jacket. Actually... Read More | Share it now!
The following is an (abridged) English version of an interview I gave for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wikipedia and why scholars hesitate to write for the online encyclopedia (their issue of April 9, 2014, last page). Friedemann... Read More | Share it now!
Olaf Simons: Rumours have it that you are planning a temporary Facebook abstinence – can it be? Hashem Al-Ghaili: Yes, that’s right. Due to work pressure, I have to quit Facebook temporarily for a couple of months. I think that’s what... Read More | Share it now!
The debate was – as could be expected (see my posting before the debate) – neither apt to widen our knowledge about evolution nor, and that is far more precarious, nor did it shed much more light on Ken Ham’s creationism. Nye gave his view on why... Read More | Share it now!
Modern creationists tend to insinuate that they do basically share the beliefs with medieval and early modern authors. That is easier said than done. The very word creationism would not have crossed a Newton’s or a Locke’s mind – though Newton... Read More | Share it now!
What puzzles me is the question how much of Mach’s positivism, or even Wittgenstein’s neo-positivism (if both allow me these categorisations) is actually inherent in Comte’s explicit positivism. I used to think: not much. Yet whenever... Read More | Share it now!