The fact that someone from richarddawkins.net should speak against such interviews has of course an ironic twist. The titular saint of that site Dawkins himself has, as far as I can see, never resisted the temptation to venture such a... Read More | Share it now!
The Bill Nye—Ken Ham Debate on Creationism (1)
this thread | next Bill Nye talks about the debate here: As soon as the debate has been announced, the question concerning the sense of debates with creationists arose. I will park some of these here. Benjamin Radford discusses at news.discovery.com... Read More | Share it now!
Among the Pictures of this Year: Chinese Eco Positivism, 2013
Probably our picture of the year: Chinese eco-positivism: Beijing, January 23, 2013, An LED screen shows the blue sky on the Tiananmen Square at dangerous levels of air pollution. Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images and they have variants as the truth is... Read More | Share it now!
Positive X-Mas Delights
Lets not pretend positivists of the “Republic of the West” can avoid Christmas. They can’t and they love it just as they love all the traditions they overcome by assimilating them. Here are my tips how to delight your beloved (or how... Read More | Share it now!
How to Get the Positivist Calendar on Your Website
On special request. In case you have an atheist, rationalist or otherwise innovative website you can get the positivist calendar’s date with a bit of code you will have to insert. Here is the script. Paste into the header: <script... Read More | Share it now!
Atheist Biblical Literalism, sigh
Quote from the page: This website aspires to be a beautiful and interactive resource for skeptics and believers alike to explore some of the more negative aspects of holy books. It was heavily inspired by the Reason Project’s poster of biblical... Read More | Share it now!
Test an atomic detonation online
This strange website reminds me of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was a pupil back then and could spend afternoons at a local lake near Munich, close my eyes and almost sense the imminent blast. What would happen? How many would die in an instant?... Read More | Share it now!
If I were a Moslem…
…Some more thoughts referring back to my last post and to the new Oxford Union Society’s video of Mehdi Hasan’s defense of Islam as a religion that does not allow the general defamation of all Moslems. What I would do if I were a... Read More | Share it now!
What is wrong with Islam today?
Posted yesterday by Al Jazeera English on YouTube: Mehdi Hasan talking with Canadian author Irshad Manji in Head to Head at the Oxford Union. Irshad Manji published The Trouble with Islam Today and Allah, Liberty and Love on the need to reform... Read More | Share it now!
Always look on the bright side of life | by Sietske Fransen
‘Would you investigate the new Atheist Church in London for us?’ Sure, always up for discovering new things in London (an endless enterprise, so suggestions are always welcome), I was more than happy to attend a church service – or... Read More | Share it now!
From the Twitter Stream
This short tweet surprised me in its sharpness @paperstargirl True only, right? People apply the normative argument when it does not concern them. Positivist when it does. @mahekoholic — Aashish C (@c_aashish) April 1, 2013 I opened a twitter... Read More | Share it now!
Auguste Comte on the Relativity of Scientific Knowledge
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!
Going Viral | Ernst Mach on Matter and the Constancy of His Existence
“Matter” is among the concepts he rejects – as a positivist or as a strict empiricist. In the preface to the fourth edition of his Analysis of Sensations (1902) he is happy about the company of those philosophers who have developed much the same... Read More | Share it now!
2013-03-22: Conference on Comte’s positivism in the German speaking world
La réception du positivisme d’Auguste Comte dans les pays de langue germanique. Journée d’études organisée par l’EA 2326 et la Maison d’Auguste Comte, Vendredi 22 mars 2013, Université de Strasbourg. Institut Le Bel. Salle... Read More | Share it now!
What You See Is Real
“What you see is real” – an interesting statement made on Chen Wenling’s web page; one might ask: what else should it be? I took this screenshot, before the message will disappear into the world of unstable web artefacts, klick at it to get... Read More | Share it now!
Émile Zola to France’s Young Generation (1893)
“Science promised the truth, and it is questionable if happiness can be made out of facts” — Émile Zola on the fin de siècle and all new dreams of strength and heroism in New York Times June 11, 1893. M. ZOLA GIVES SOME ADVICE HE... Read More | Share it now!
100 Facebook Likes
That is not exactly a number to celebrate, rather one to examine – in facebook terms it is a rather modest number. I opened the facbook page of global positivism on March 15, 2012 with a bit of curiosity about the new features facebook was to give... Read More | Share it now!
The Positivists | by Edward James Mortimer Collins
from: Edward James Mortimer Collins, The British Birds, A Communication from the Ghost of Aristophanes. London: The Publishing Co., 1872. To Professor Tyndall Life and the Universe show spontaneity: Down with ridiculous notions of Deity! Churches and... Read More | Share it now!
A General View of Positivism (1848), introduction | by Auguste Comte
From the “introductory remarks” to Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism , Bridges, J.H. (tr.) (London: Trubner and Co., 1865/ 2nd ed. 1880), pp. 1-5. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00064-2. Positivism... Read More | Share it now!
New edition of Auguste Comte’s ‘Cours de philosophie positive’, Lessons 46-51 (1830-42)
The volume contains Comte’s first six lessons on sociology edited and freshly annotated by Michel Bourdeau, Laurent Clauzade, and Frédéric Dupin. Political arguments showing the necessity and timeliness of the science of society Survey of... Read More | Share it now!