On the importance of the philosophy of science

Many people lie in a casual ‘I’ll recognise it when I see it’ relationship with science. That ambiguity gives room for any interlocutor to add sudden vagaries to their criteria, hurriedly adding and removing things from their definition of science to suit their needs. Science can suddenly need to be given a ‘direct observation’ criteria…

Deep Ecology, Eco-Moral Nihilism and Meat Eating

Contrary to many environmental philosophies, I think it is important to recognise humans as occupying a special niche within nature. Eco-philosophies often have the assumption that humans are, in fact, indistinguishable from the rest of nature and the logical conclusion is that humans have no special rights to abstraction and interference. I think the logical…

Game Theory, Rational Acting, Politics and Nature

Neoclassical economics perceives nature in terms of commodities: farm the land, trawl the sea, mine the crust; sell the stuff. Win. We’ve even calibrated economics to look at “winners” and ignore “losers”, so we are constantly selecting false stories of promise to continue selling the promise of economics. We often look at a hydroelectric dam…

Stories that make me think I might be a Conservative

The Desert Paul, Andy and Mike had just met. They were all out backpacking when they met in the North-East of Australia. They had decided to rent a car as a group and drive to the North-West of Australia. They agreed to make a stop at a few sites along the way and at one…