science
TagThe Study of Consciousness, Accusations of Pseudoscience, and Bad Publicity
Earlier this week, a letter signed by over 100 researchers, including several philosophers, was published online, calling a popular theory of consciousness, integrated information theory (IIT), “pseudoscience.” (more…)
Philosophy as Glial Cell (guest post)
Glial cell? “Commonly described as the ‘glue’ that holds the nervous system together, they’re better thought of as infrastructure, the ductwork and insulation that give heft to comparatively sparse neurons. But even this metaphor turns out to be incomplete…”
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The Rigor of Philosophy & the Complexity of the World (guest post)
“Analytic philosophy gradually substitutes an ersatz conception of formalized ‘rigor’ in the stead of the close examination of applicational complexity.” (more…)
Researchers Call for More Work on Consciousness
In light of the continued development and growing use of large language models (e.g., ChatGPT), other kinds of neural networks, generative agents, and the like, a group of scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and other researchers have signed an open letter intended as a “wakeup call for the tech sector, the scientific community and society in general to take s..
Legislation Makes Ethical and Societal Issues Part of NSF Award Process
Philosophers may find new opportunities for working with scientists owing to legislation passed last year that makes how projects address their ethical and societal effects a more important factor in how the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards grants. (more…)
Philosophers Among Recent NSF Grant Winners
A few philosophers have picked up grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently. (more…)
Philosophy Books for Alan Lightman
Yesterday, in an interview in The New York Times, physicist and novelist Alan Lightman made a wish—a wish the readers of Daily Nous are well-positioned to grant, or at least point out how it has been granted. (more…)
Two Philosophers Among New American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows
Two philosophers have been included in the 2022 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. (more…)
Sober Wins Inaugural “Philosophy In Biology and Medicine” Award
Elliott Sober, professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, is the winner of the first Philosophy in Biology and Medicine (PhilInBioMed) Award. (more…)
€4 Million Grant for Philosophical Research on the Credibility of Science
A project led by philosophers Mathias Frisch and Torsten Wilholt (Institut für Philosophie at Leibniz Universität Hannover) on science and trust has received a 4,020,000 million euro grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG). (more…)
€1.35 Million Grant for Philosophical Project on AI & Scientific Understanding
Florian J. Boge, currently an interim professor for philosophy of science at Wuppertal University and a postdoc in the interdisciplinary research unit The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider, has recently obtained a €1.35 million (≈ $1.44 million) grant by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for research on the impact of artificial intelligence on scientific ..
We’re Not Ready for the AI on the Horizon, But People Are Trying
Ongoing developments in artifical intelligence, particularly in AI linguistic communication, will affect various aspects of our lives in various ways. We can’t foresee all of the uses to which technologies such as large language models (LLMs) will be put, nor all of the consequences of their employment. But we can reasonably say the effects will be significant, and ..
New Journal: Philosophy of Physics
The Philosophy of Physics Society is launching a new journal: Philosophy of Physics. (more…)
New: Journal of NeuroPhilosophy
A new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary journal, the Journal of Neurophilosophy, published its first issue this past summer. (more…)
Philosophers Call for more Scientific Research on “Civilization Collapse”
“Civilization collapse the loss of societal capacity to maintain essential governance functions, especially maintaining security, the rule of law, and the provision of basic necessities such as food and water. Civilization collapses in this sense could be associated with civil strife, violence, and widespread scarcity, and thus have extremely adverse effects on hum..
Philosophy’s Happiness Literature: More of It, More Empirical (guest post)
In the following guest post, Michael Prinzing (Yale) discusses trends in philosophical discussions of happiness and well-being. (more…)
Philosophers Among Recent NSF Grant Winners (updated)
Several philosophers have been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) over the past couple of months. (more…)
Which Questions Can’t Philosophy Answer By Itself?
In an interview in The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Australasia, Thomas Spiteri asks Peter Godfrey-Smith (Sydney) about “how best to make epistemic progress” answering philosophical questions about minds and consciousness. (more…)
$3 Million Grant for Interdisciplinary Project on Time & Quantum Biology
An interdisciplinary team of scientists and philosophers has won a $3 million grant to support a project on time and quantum biology called “Life on the Edge.” (more…)
Philosophy of Well-Being: A “Dysfunctional” Situation?
A “responsible definition of wellbeing,” says Anna Alexandrova (Cambridge), “needs to be appropriate to the goals of the project—epistemically accessible, reasonably simple, in other words fit for purpose… Philosophers of wellbeing in the analytic tradition think very differently.” (more…)
Discipline Size and Progress, in General and in Philosophy
When a field of study becomes large enough, its size “may impede the rise of new ideas,” according to Johan S.G. Chu and James A. Evans, in a new paper, “Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science,” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)
Philosophers Cited in IPCC Report
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing science related to climate change, earlier this week released the report of its Working Group I, which is the first installment of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), to be completed in 2022. (more…)
$1 Million Grant for Work on Philosophy of Contemporary and Future Science
Darrell Rowbottom, professor of philosophy at Lingnan University, has been awarded a grant of approximately $1 million for his project, “Philosophy of Contemporary and Future Science.” (more…)
Strange Philosophical Claims By Scientists
Did you know that the brain cortex has “an amount of free will exceeding 96 terabytes per second”? No? Is it because… umm… you thought it was some other number of terabytes? (more…)
Which Scientific Disciplines Cite Philosophy of Science? (guest post)
What is the impact of philosophy of science on science? (more…)
NSF Bill Emphasizes Ethics, Includes Ethics Grants
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology has introduced a bill for the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF) that includes a noticeable emphasis on ethics in science. (more…)
Philosophers Among New Class of AAAS Fellows
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAs) has announced its 2020 class of fellows. Most of the 489 new fellows are scientists, but three are philosophers. (more…)
Things Philosophers Know About Science That You Don’t
What do philosophers know that others don’t? This post intiates an occasional series that asks philosophers to engage with the “conventional wisdom” on various topics by sharing strongly-supported or widely-held philosophical insights and ideas about them.