Science and Philosophy contents



The Mind/Matter Problem

The mind/matter problem
Where is my mind?
A brief history of the brain
Can we split our mind in two?
How do we know the external world really exists?
The subjective nature of our experiences

History of Quantum Mechanics

The problems with light (1670 - 1900)
Quantum theory (1900 - 1926)
Quantum tunnelling
Quantum holism
The measurement problem
The Everett Approach - parallel worlds
Experimentally verifying the Everett approach
The preferred basis problem
The incoherence problem
The quantitative problem
Lockwood and the Born measure
Saunders and Wallace and the Born measure
Are both theories compatible?

Consequences of a Quantum theory of the mind

Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism and quantum mechanics
Freewill and the Everett Approach
Freewill and biological research
How to reconcile freewill and determinism
Quantum mechanics and biology
The anthropic principle
Worrying about parallel counterparts
Worrying about our future actions
Worrying about our future-selves
References



Philosophy of Morality

Hobbes and Rousseau's state of nature
Rousseau's general will
Mill and the harm principle
The morality of the death penalty
Morality of hate speech and censorship
Alan Turning and the right to be gay

Philosophy of Feminism

The morality of prostitution
History of the vibrator
Is pornography anti-feminist?
Is pornography subordinating?
Capitalism and beauty
Bartky and feminine appearance

Philosophy of Art

Can art degrade women?
Why do we enjoy horror films?
Perfect forgeries
Is photography art?

Philosophy of Space and Time

Why did space and time begin?
How long is the smallest moment of time?
Can time exist without change?
Do spacetime points exist?
The hole argument
Responses to the hole argument
David Lewis' counterpart theory
Indeterminism about which identical parts play which role
Defending Lewis's counterpart theory
References




History of the Universe

The origin of the universe
The formation of stars
Oort cloud, Kuiper Belt, Pluto
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn
Jupiter
Mars, Venus, Mercury
The Sun
The Earth and Moon

History of Life on Earth

Evolution of life on Earth
Era of the dinosaurs
The evolution of humanity
The sum of our parts
The evolution of dreaming
Prehistoric life
The end of the ice age

The birth of Science

The First Science
The Northern constellations
Ancient Greece
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Ancient Egypt
Arabic astronomy

A history of science:
1500 - 1700
Astronomy: 1500 - 1600
The Southern constellations
Astronomy: 1600 - 1700
Galileo's telescope monopoly
Newton and the history of the prism
Did Newton's science affect his theology?
Did Newton's theology affect his science?

A history of science:
1700 - 1900
Astronomy: 1700 - 1900
The Newtonian method
Criticisms of the Newtonian method
The definition of species in the 1700s
Taxonomy as a science
Buffon and the Histoire Naturelle
Linnaeus' taxonomy
References
Science and religion in Victorian Britain
John Tyndall's Belfast Address
Science as a profession
The media, science and religion
Darwin and materialism
The Church in Victorian Britain
References

A history of science:
1900 - 2000
Astronomy: 1900 - 2000
Special relativity
General relativity
Man on the Moon
Carl Sagan and space exploration
Carl Sagan and space exploration
in the sixties
Carl Sagan and space exploration
in the seventies
Life outside the Solar system
Sagan's influence
References


Philosophy of Science

Induction, conventionalism, falsification and research programs
What is a scientific style?
How does science represent reality?
Suárez and scientific representation
The 'no miracles argument' for scientific realism
Scientific realism and PMI
Van Fraassen and unobservables
The Galilean strategy
Entity realism
References

Philosophy of Biology

Sartre's theory of imagining
Sartre's theory of dreams
Sociobiology
Evolutionary Psychology
Is our scientific ability the result of evolution?
How can we define species?
An analogy: How do we define planets
Available definitions of species
Objections to species pluralism
References
Images (from top to bottom) courtesy of: 1-9 NASA, Wikipedia, Commonwealth of Australia, E Cheng, National Geographic, 14-18 copyright Helen Klus, BBC, Wikipedia, The British Library Board, British Library Or.8210/S.3226, Wikipedia, tomb of Seti I, Wikipedia, Faurel, 1988, NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, NASA.