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The selfish machine? On the power and limitation of natural selection to understand the development of advanced AI
Some philosophers and machine learning experts have speculated that superintelligent Artificial Intelligences (AIs), if and when they arrive on the...
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“Trust Me, I’m a Scientist”
Modern democratic societies tend to appeal to the authority of science when dealing with important challenges and solving their problems....
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Ethics of Nuclear Energy in Times of Climate Change: Escaping the Collective Action Problem
In recent years, there has been an intense public debate about whether and, if so, to what extent investments in nuclear energy should be part of...
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Demystifying Mysteries. How Metaphors and Analogies Extend the Reach of the Human Mind
Some philosophers have argued that, owing to our humble evolutionary origins, some mysteries of the universe will forever remain beyond our ken. But...
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Diagnosing Pseudoscience – by Getting Rid of the Demarcation Problem
For a long time, philosophers of science have expressed little interest in the so-called demarcation project that occupied the pioneers of their...
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The end of science? On human cognitive limitations and how to overcome them
What, if any, are the limits of human understanding? Epistemic pessimists, sobered by our humble evolutionary origins, have argued that some parts of...
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Replicate after reading: on the extraction and evocation of cultural information
Does cultural evolution happen by a process of copying or replication? And how exactly does cultural transmission compare with that paradigmatic case...
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The Myth of Senseless Violence and the Problem of Terrorism
Many people have a fascination with ‘senseless violence’ and are concerned about its rise in our society. In the real world, however, violence is...
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The Fake, the Flimsy, and the Fallacious: Demarcating Arguments in Real Life
Philosophers of science have given up on the quest for a silver bulletto put an end to all pseudoscience, as such a neat formal criterion to...
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Beyond Physics? On the Prospects of Finding a Meaningful Oracle
Certain enterprises at the fringes of science, such as intelligent design creationism, claim to identify phenomena that go beyond not just our...
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Prove it! The Burden of Proof Game in Science vs. Pseudoscience Disputes
The concept of burden of proof is used in a wide range of discourses, from philosophy to law, science, skepticism, and even in everyday reasoning....
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Does Science Presuppose Naturalism (or Anything at All)?
Several scientists, scientific institutions, and philosophers have argued that science is committed to Methodological Naturalism (MN), the view that...
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Grist to the Mill of Anti-evolutionism: The Failed Strategy of Ruling the Supernatural Out of Science by Philosophical Fiat
According to a widespread philosophical opinion, science is strictly limited to investigating natural causes and putting forth natural explanations....
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The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory
This paper discusses the relationship between religion and science education in the light of the cognitive sciences. We challenge the popular view...
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Why Machine-Information Metaphors are Bad for Science and Science Education
Genes are often described by biologists using metaphors derived from computational science: they are thought of as carriers of information, as being...
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How Not to Attack Intelligent Design Creationism: Philosophical Misconceptions About Methodological Naturalism
In recent controversies about Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC), the principle of methodological naturalism (MN)has played an important role. In...
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Immunizing Strategies and Epistemic Defense Mechanisms
An immunizing strategy is an argument brought forward in support of a belief system, though independent fromthat belief system, which makes it more...