thoughts in and out of season
I recently touched on the ambiguity of “random variation” as one of the basic principles of evolution. The word “random” appears to be something of a placeholder. From the point of view of any science, it seems that random events are simply events the science doesn’t try to explain that follow a normal distribution or … More ...
Here’s a poem I’ve always been fond of that’s not my favorite but I was thinking about it today:
… More ...An Immorality (Ezra Pound)
Sing we for love and idleness,
Naught else is worth the having.
Though I have been in many a land,
There is naught else in living.
And I would rather have my
I’ve never put much effort into sorting out the dispute over evolution and intelligent design, partly because it would take too much work and partly because I really don’t understand why, rationally speaking, there’s such an issue. Still, the Cardinal Schönborn situation got me thinking a little about claims that science of necessity is “naturalistic”—it … More ...
Here are some further unsystematic thoughts noted down while reading Political Liberalism:
According to Steve Sailer, Wite-out was invented by the mother of Michael Nesmith of the Monkees. (Is this the place to mention that F. A. Hayek was Ludwig Wittgenstein’s cousin? I’m not sure whether it was first cousin or what. And I once had a teacher who was some sort of cousin of Gertrude … More ...
As punishment for my sins (which must be scarlet indeed) I’ve been obliged once again to read John Rawls’s Political Liberalism. Some comments (further comments as always are welcome):
I don’t really understand the to-do between Cardinal Schönborn and his critics over evolution. [If you look lower down on the linked page you’ll find his original NYT op-ed piece, together with the paper’s commentary.]
As I understand the Cardinal’s and Church’s point (I think His Eminence presented it in an overly partisan and combative … More ...
Little known to me, anyway: it turns out that Anna Leonowens of King and I fame was Boris Karloff’s great aunt.… More ...
While I was preparing to give a talk about law, I did a little reading on the philosophy of law. One thing that struck me was what might be called the “external” point of view taken in current thought on the subject.
Here’s a quote from Blackstone:
… More ...This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind
A fascinating story: someone is said to have sprouted a date seed unearthed at Masada, from a date eaten during the siege there almost 2,000 years ago. It appears that 500-year-old seeds had been sprouted in England, and 1200-year old seeds in China, but this would be the first 2,000-year-old seed.
The dates of ancient … More ...