Category: The Philosopher’s Corner

When I wear my hat as a philosopher of science (partially distinct from my other hat as an evolutionary biologist), I eventually run into a scientist (I could name names, but I won’t) who smugly tells me that philosophy obviously doesn’t make progress. The evidence? Philosophers disagree on all sorts of things and there is …

“Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon—it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.”1 This famous quote is by Scott D. Weitzenhoffer, who wrote it as an Amazon.com review for Eugenie Scott’s book Evolution vs. …

There is a pernicious belief spreading within the skeptic community that it’s a waste of time to talk to science deniers, so our efforts are better spent, well, doing what, exactly? I’ve been to plenty of skeptic conferences where we all talk to each other and pat ourselves on the back in recognition of just …

With this new column, we are delighted to welcome back to our pages on a regular basis our esteemed colleague the philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci. His first SI column, “Thinking about Science,” ran for twelve years from 2002 to 2015. This new column will explore skepticism from the viewpoint of the philosophy of …