Philosopher: Why Brain Science Does Not Eliminate Free Will
Tim Bayne looks at what we can logically deduce from the famous Libet experimentsThe logical argument for free will coincides with recent neuroscience research findings.
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Denyse O'Leary
New Pre-Crime Laws: Real-Life “Minority Report” Coming to Canada?
Americans should NOT assume that “It can’t happen here.” The First Amendment is a constitutional tool, not a magic talisman. It can be underminedCanadian media that accept Trudeau’s handouts must please the regime more than inform the public. Indies are under heavy fire.
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Consciousness Wars: Researcher Tries Negotiating a Truce
Witch hunts against leading theories are bad for a discipline’s reputation; Johan Storm thinks that all the prominent theories of consciousness are a little bit rightThe fate of the discipline may depend on how committed researchers are to finding out the facts vs. protecting a materialist view of consciousness.
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The Cancel Culture Mob Comes for the Psychologists
The response “It’s complicated,” chosen by nearly half of psychology profs, is a roundabout confession of cowardice in the face of mobs threatened by findings they hope to stifleCancel Culture at universities aims to protect a set of core beliefs from challenge by new evidence. If a discipline is to thrive, it must defeat the Cancel mob
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If We Doubt That Plants Have Minds, Are We “Soul-Blind”?
The concept of “plant mind” as a trend in science — a trend consistent with growing panpsychism— has begun to worry some researchersIf panpsychism continues to gain ground, the human mind can at last be acknowledged to exist — along with the cabbage mind and possibly the electron mind.
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How Do Writers Get Paid in an Age When Chatbots “Write” Things?
Are lawsuits against Big Tech really the answer? Much of the territory is unchartedA few Big Tech players control the chatbot market. Could bargaining with them for something like Public Lending Right resolve the writers’ issues?
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Does Time Exist? That’s Not As Clear As We Might Think
We picture a clock when we think of time but, physicists note, that’s not how we experience it as living beingsThe COVID lockdowns often introduced people to a different approach to time from what they were used to, with mixed results.
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Does Your Dog Feel “Guilty” When He Rips the Sofa?
Dog expert Zazie Todd says no; when assessing dog emotions, we should think more simplyThe dog’s life is easier than human life in some ways; if he isn’t in trouble with humans or other dogs, everything is fine.
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From a Philosopher: Philosophy of Consciousness Is “Bizarre”
Eric Schwitzgebel admits to his host at Closer to Truth that “every single view in the history of the philosophy of mind is bizarre”…He blames our “folk intuitions” for the problem. Some thinkers would say that the problem arises from seeking a materialist solution to an immaterial reality.
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Our Universe Works, Yet Doesn’t Make Sense … And So?
How can so much uncertainty lie placidly at the basis of our universe but disrupt nothing in particular? We even build better computers because of itThe most reasonable theory of how the universe can be both uncertain at its base and yet reliable in everyday life is the least popular one: deism or theism.
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Generative AI Is Creating a Copyright Crisis for Artists
How does an artist assert copyright when her image was only one of many used to create a new image? How does she make a living if she can’t?AI companies could be required to record images’ origin and compensate copyright holders. But as Robert J. Marks notes, end users might then have to pay.
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It’s Not “Myths” That Cause Distrust in Science But Sad Truths
An astrophysicist, hoping to shore up public trust, means well but gets the problems all wrongEthan Siegel offers a fantasy representation of the science world. It may comfort him but it might provoke knowledgeable people to trust science even less.
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An “Evolutionary” Analysis of Childhood Provides No New Knowledge
Archeologist Brenna Hassett offers to explain the evolution of childhood and grandmothers — but, unfortunately, ends up providing no real insightHumans have reason and ethics and other animals don’t, and there is no evidence that these qualities — that shape our societies — simply “evolved.”
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Free Will: Never Let Mere Atoms Near a Keyboard
No free will — and therefore no responsibility — may sound more “cool” than free will but we had better be careful about what we admireIf there is no free will, you can’t say “I didn’t do it” if sociologically, you have a higher probability of doing it than someone else might.
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Can Mathematics Describe Our Innermost Life When Words Fail?
What if the researchers end up with a number that means nothing while the experience itself remains a barely describable personal event?“Evolution” theories about the human mind play a key role in the manufacture of non-knowledge posing as knowledge, and we are urged to treat them as knowledge.
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Animals Using Healing Plants Is Old News, Says Classics Prof
Adrienne Mayor tells us that ancient and Indigenous peoples learned herbal medicine in part by observing animalsNo one knows how animal knowledge of this sort is transmitted. Genetics? Environment? Design in nature? It’s not new and it is still a mystery.
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If Humans Were Just Animals, We Would Not Help Animals
Whether we like it or not, the gulf fixed between humans and other animals is what makes it possible for us to reject cruelty to animalsThe “human evolution” narrative that ignores the critical distinction handicaps the thinking of philosopher Hugh Desmond and many others.
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Religious Scientists Balance Work and Faith — on a Knife Edge
A recent article in Nature both sums up — and typifies — the problems they face, weaving around the presumption of atheismWhat benefits does the presumption of atheism provide? So many disciplines reel under peer review scandals while trust in science has diminished over the years.
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The Conviction That ET Is Out There Survives Every Setback
Because it is only natural to resist the idea that we are alone, the hope of finding extraterrestrials twists science thinking in strange waysIt’s telling that the obvious evidence for the fine-tuning of the universe, implying design, is — in sharp contrast — evaluated in a hypercritical way.
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Could Neanderthals Speak? It Depends on Who You Talk To
Theorists who will, sadly, never converse with a living Neanderthal imagine things they could and couldn’t do linguisticallyHumans can tolerate mysteries quite well as long as we can fill them in with speculations, which in the end tell us mostly about ourselves.
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