philosophy of science
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The Mercury-Neptune Dilemma
An Epistemic Limitation in Science
It is not possible to know whether a gap between theory and observation requires adding a bit of missing data, or is instead grounds for revamping the theory. Let me explain. The planet Neptune was discovered “with the point of a pen”: it solved an apparent discrepancy between the observed orbit of Uranus and what…
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An emergence reading list
I initially wanted to devote individual blog posts to the best of these readings from our emergence journal club, but the previous post is getting an unexpected amount of attention, and there were some requests for reading material. So here is what we have discussed so far:
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“Are thoughts just a bunch of electrical and chemical signals being tossed around inside the brain, or is there more to it than that?”
“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of…” The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis I really like the quote above, which is from the Chronicles of Narnia.…
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Are mental disorders the same as brain disorders? Maybe not!
I am currently reading an excellent paper that will be published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences soon. It raises some very important issues with popular conceptions of mental illness. Brain disorders? Not really… Why network structures block reductionism in psychopathology research These two figures capture some of the key points: Here is the abstract: “In…