Skeptical Inquirer — Thinking About Science
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Logophobia
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 33.5, September / October 2009
Thinking About Science
Logophobics have developed strategies to obfuscate clear thinking, which they deploy whenever pressed by a skeptic.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Hard and Soft Science: Physics vs. Psychology
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 33.3, May / June 2009
Thinking About Science
It turns out that the replicability of findings in psychology is no worse than that of findings in particle physics.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
The Tree of Life
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 33.2, March / April 2009
Thinking About Science
Darwin famously drew only one figure in The Origin of Species, which was published 150 years ago...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Experimental Philosophy, an Oxymoron?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 33.1, January / February 2009
Thinking About Science
Is it inconveivable, for instance, for an ethical philosopher to write a paper in that field as if he had never heard of...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
The Brain on Justice
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 32.5, September / October 2008
Thinking About Science
Justice, fairness and the efficient distribution of resources do not seem at first the sort of topics that should interest...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Alternative Science
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 32.4, July / August 2008
Thinking About Science
Theories and hypotheses are the outcome of creative thinking, and creative thinking requires imagination, not just knowledge.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Creationist Peer Review
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 32.3, May / June 2008
Thinking About Science
Arguing, teaching, and doing research means that one accepts the rule of rational, evidence-based discourse...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Toward a Consilience of Sciences and Humanities?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 32.2, March / April 2008
Thinking About Science
In 1998, biologist Edward O. Wilson published a controversial book titled Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Is Intelligent Design Creationism?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 32.1, January / February 2008
Thinking About Science
The fossils produced by the paleontologist make a compelling case because they are of the appropriate morphology...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Beyond Selfish Genes
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 31.6, November / December 2007
Thinking About Science
Richard Dawkins' classic book, The Selfish Gene (1976), presented to the public the astonishing idea that...
The Trouble with Memetics
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 31.5, September / October 2007
Thinking About Science
A meme, according to the by-now-standard dictionary definition, is "an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Is Dawkins Deluded? When Scientists Talk About Religion
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 31.4, July / August 2007
Thinking About Science
By some accounts, 2006 was the year atheists struck back. Three books in particular made headlines across the world...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Can There Be a Science of Free Will?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 31.3, May / June 2007
Thinking About Science
A splendid article by Dennis Overbye in The New York Times gave me the impetus to talk about...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Is There Such a Thing as Macroevolution?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 31.2, March / April 2007
Thinking About Science
Even creationists make progress.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
The Neuro-philosophy of Regred
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.6, November / December 2006
Thinking About Science
For millennia, the study of the mind and the relationship between reason and emotions was the exclusive domain of philosophy.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
One More Take on Reductionism vs. Holism
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.5, September / October 2006
Thinking About Science
Do you think that nature is characterized by complex systems that interact with each other and whose properties are not...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
When Philosophy Matters
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.4, July / August 2006
Thinking About Science
Philosophy is often accused of being out of touch with reality, the esoteric pursuit of a vanishing academic elite that...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Is Physics Turning into Philosophy?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.3, May / June 2006
Thinking About Science
Physics is, by most people's—especially physicists'—accounts, the queen of the sciences.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Is Evolutionary Psychology a Pseudoscience?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.2, March / April 2006
Thinking About Science
Evolutionary psychology is the most current incarnation of what started out as sociobiology, a branch of evolutionary theory...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Planet X and the Issue of Definitions in Science
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 30.1, January / February 2006
Thinking About Science
Planet X, the long-hypothesized tenth member of the solar system, has finally been discovered by a group of astronomers...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Just the Facts, Ma’am: Empirical vs. Rationalist Approaches to Understanding
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.6, November / December 2005
Thinking About Science
Skeptics tend to be empiricists. They want the facts. Indeed, it is this emphasis on empirically verifiable statements that...
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
The Power and Perils of Metaphors in Science
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.5, September / October 2005
Thinking About Science
Humans apparently cannot avoid thinking, at least occasionally, by images and parallels to already known situations.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Are the Historical Sciences Sciences?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.4, July / August 2005
Thinking About Science
Are historical sciences somehow inferior to experimental ones? This attitude, sometimes referred to as "physics envy..."
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
The So-called Gaia Hypothesis
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.3, May / June 2005
Thinking About Science
Is Earth a living organism? Broadly speaking, this is the chief claim of a family of theories often referred to as "Gaia."
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Do Extraordinary Claims Really Require Extraordinary Evidence?
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.2, March / April 2005
Thinking About Science
Carl Sagan had a rare gift for making clear rather abstruse ideas.
Available in the Print Edition. Subscribe Here.
Piltdown and How Science Really Works
by Massimo Pigliucci
Volume 29.1, January / February 2005
Thinking About Science
When one debates creationists, one is bound to run up against the infamous Piltdown forgery. This is the case of an alleged...