Category Archives: Science

“RESEARCH PARASITES”.

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Philip

“RESEARCH PARASITES”. I have made a number of posts about the movement to perform and publish more studies which attempt to replicate previous studies (for example this post describing the Reproducibility Project, which is making efforts to replicate 100 research … Continue reading →

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A THEORY THAT SOME LANGUAGES HAVE BEEN MADE DIFFICULT SO THAT OUTSIDERS WON’T LEARN THEM.

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Philip

A THEORY THAT SOME LANGUAGES HAVE BEEN MADE DIFFICULT SO THAT OUTSIDERS WON’T LEARN THEM. Ryan Bradley had an interview with the linguist Sarah Thomason on the daily Paris Review (March 30 2016) blog about languages that are spoken by … Continue reading →

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A CHILD WHO SAW THE SKY AS COLORLESS.

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Philip

A CHILD WHO SAW THE SKY AS COLORLESS. It seems strange to me that the Greeks did not see the sky as blue. Here is a “casual experiment” that makes me less skeptical: In his article, Kevin Loria tells how … Continue reading →

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CAN AN ENGLISH SPEAKER DISTINGUISH SHADES OF GREEN WITHOUT HAVING LOTS OF WORDS FOR GREEN?

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Philip

CAN AN ENGLISH SPEAKER DISTINGUISH SHADES OF GREEN WITHOUT HAVING LOTS OF WORDS FOR GREEN? The second of Davidoff’s experiments on how languages affect the ability to tell green from blue dealt with how well English speakers can distinguish shades … Continue reading →

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CAN A PERSON WHO SPEAKS A LANGUAGE WITH NO WORD FOR BLUE DISTINGUISH BLUE FROM GREEN?

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Philip

CAN A PERSON WHO SPEAKS A LANGUAGE WITH NO WORD FOR BLUE DISTINGUISH BLUE FROM GREEN? In this article in the New York Times Magazine (August 26, 2010) the linguist Guy Deutscher states the weak form of the Whorfian hypothesis … Continue reading →

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THE STRONG AND THE WEAK WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS.

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Philip

THE STRONG AND THE WEAK WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS. It seems that much of the “fierce debate” on whether language can shape the thoughts of those who speak it turns on disagreement about a strong and a weak form of the hypothesis. … Continue reading →

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SMALL SAMPLES IN ARCHAEOLOGY.

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Philip

SMALL SAMPLES IN ARCHAEOLOGY. It will have occurred to you that three skeletons constitute a very small statistical sample if you are trying to get information about the movements of populations thousands of years ago. I posted here about the … Continue reading →

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WERE THE IRISH IN IRELAND BEFORE ANY CELT INVASION?

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Philip

WERE THE IRISH IN IRELAND BEFORE ANY CELT INVASION? This article by Peter Whoriskey in the Independent for Saint Patrick’s Day reports on new findings about the settlement of Ireland based on the analysis of three skeletons that have been … Continue reading →

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MAYBE YOU DON’T HAVE A FIXED AMOUNT OF WILLPOWER.

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Philip

MAYBE YOU DON’T HAVE A FIXED AMOUNT OF WILLPOWER. I posted here on the theory that at any one time the brain only has a fixed amount of willpower. Now this theory, which was supported by hundreds of psychological experiments … Continue reading →

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“THE ABSENCE OF ABSENCE”.

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Philip

“THE ABSENCE OF ABSENCE”. I posted here on the “Sokal Hoax”. In 1996, Alan Sokal, a physics professor, submitted a fake article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. The hoax was directed against a point of … Continue reading →

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