Category Archives: Philosophy for Bloggers

2021: A year in review

Posted on January 1, 2022 by ...and Then There's Physics

I have typically done a year in review post that I normally publish on 31 December. However, this time, I forgot (despite Willard reminding me) so here is one I’ve put together fairly quickly. Apologies for being a bit late. … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged | 31 Comments

Classification of contrarian claims about climate change

Posted on December 11, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

The latest controversy in the climate debate is the publication of a paper on [c]omputer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change. The authors are Travis Coan, Constantine Boussalis, John Cook, and Mirjam Nanko. You may recognise John Cook as … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research | Tagged , , , , , | 203 Comments

How to Reason by Analogy

Posted on June 16, 2021 by Willard

Issues echo one another. Unimaginativeness alone prevents us from connecting any two of them. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if the usual Climateball ™ suspects voice Covidball (tm pending) concerns that sound familiar. While similarities may be infinite, tropes converge. Take … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers | 25 Comments

Some reflections on (corona) truth wars

Posted on June 9, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

I wrote this in response to a paper by Jaron Harambam called The Corona Truth Wars, published in a journal called Science and Technology Studies. I submitted it to this journal but it was (desk?) rejected because they felt that … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Scientists, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 58 Comments

Declaring a climate emergency?

Posted on June 6, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Matthew Nisbet, Professor of Communication, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, has a new article called Manufacturing Consent: The dangerous campaign behind climate emergency declarations. It makes similar arguments to those made by Mike Hulme in an article … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Politics, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 57 Comments

The is-ought distinction

Posted on May 21, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There was an interesting panel discussion, as part of Andy Revkin’s #SustainWhat webcast, involving Naomi Oreskes and Mike Hulme. Andy was highlighting it because of what Naomi Oreskes was saying about people staying in their lanes. There can be a … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Policy, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , , , | 55 Comments

Do lockdowns work?

Posted on April 21, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Preamble: I wrote this post for another site that was considering myth-busting type posts, which is why it’s written in the third person. However, the myth-busting part of the site never really took off, so I thought I would post … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Eight years

Posted on April 13, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

I’ve just realised that I started this blog eight years ago today. This past year has been relatively quiet, partly because it’s been a rather unusual year and I’ve not really felt all that motivated to write blog posts, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Science in the Time of COVID-19

Posted on March 23, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There was an interesting BBC Radio 4 item, hosted by Sonia Sodha, on Science in the Time of COVID-19. If you can’t access it, there is a related Guardian article. I’ve listened to it a few times, and I’m still … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Science, Scientists, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method, We Are Science | Tagged , , , , , , | 63 Comments

The social construction of science

Posted on March 8, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Richard Dawkins posted a tweet that cause a bit of a furore in some sectors of Twitter. He did try to clarify, but it still didn’t go down well. The problem with his tweet is that science clearly is socially … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Research, Scientists, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 53 Comments