Richard DawkinsVerified account

Am I alone in finding the very idea of “Continental Philosophy” ridiculous? What would we think of a university that appointed someone to teach Continental Chemistry? Continental Algebra? Does it tell us something about philosophy as an academic discipline?

Now in Part 3: “90% chimp, 10% bee.” 3 points before finishing 1. Bee, apotheosis of kin selection, is terrible poster-girl for group selection 2. Groupish individuals flourish but that’s not group selection 3. Isn’t gene-culture coevolution gene-meme coevolution (2 replicators)?

Finished “Thinks”, well crafted campus novel by David Lodge. Male scientist & female novelist in (productive) meeting of minds and (inevitable) mating of bodies. Intelligent, sexy, literate (including scientifically), moving. Illuminates “What is it like to be” someone else.

From time to time I read a book which I find seminal: seeds new constructive thought. Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind (I’m now half way through) is seminal. Recommended, especially if you’re one of those who fashionably rubbishes Evolutionary Psychology & its “modules”.

Why I favour (1): Think back from own existence. Hyper-improbability of dad’s lucky sperm making it. Multiply up for 2 grandads, 4 gt grandads etc. Ripple outward back to ur-mammal. Now think forwards. Outward worldwide-spreading causal ripple from any event, even trivial sneeze.

Historic contingency “If the second dinosaur to the left of the tall cycad tree had not happened to sneeze …we should none of us be here.” Is this, 1) necessarily true for any dinosaur? 2) Necessarily true only of a dinosaur whose sneeze interrupted its pursuit of the ur-mammal?

Sobbed my way through the film of Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth. Beautifully done. Was the First World War the greatest act of collective folly in all history? Not only itself. It also directly spawned Hitler. Yet we all owe our existence to it (unless we’re well over 100)

The cameo appearance of the incomparable Douglas Adams in one of my Royal Institution Christmas Lectures “for a juvenile auditory.” http://bit.ly/2LWahhI 

Language experts (others please don’t reply): Am I correct that the English word “conference” is an interesting example of a “false friend”? I often get invitations from non-English-speakers (most recently Portuguese) to “give a conference.” I suspect they mean “give a lecture.”

Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind read (well) by author. We are “groupish”: reasoning evolved to win arguments not get truth. OK, but why then elevate “intuition”? His irritating “elephant & rider” metaphor might work better if Americans pronounced rider & writer differently.

“Jewish child”? “Muslim child”? “Christian child”? Cultural tradition is all very well but don’t label children with the opinions of their parents. https://bit.ly/2Mju8TR  If you have comments, consider posting them on http://RichardDawkins.net  rather than wasting them on Twitter?