Henly Gate. Credit: Tony Mastres
Credit: Tony Mastres

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Can philosophy of science help science progress faster?

Can philosophy of science help science progress faster?

Philosophy of science has spent a century trying to understand what makes science tick. What (if anything) can this long conversation tell us about how to speed up the progress of science?

Reimagining the Central Dogma

Reimagining the Central Dogma

If we sequenced the entire genome of every organism on earth, what would we know? What would we not know? What are the appropriate questions to ask, strategies to apply, and methods to use to derive a next level of understanding?

In Defense of Pure Reason

In Defense of Pure Reason

The methodologies of and foundational principles behind physics and mathematics have been subjected to increasing criticism from parties outside of the sciences. How can and should scientists respond?

New Social Science

Do We Need A New Social Science?

A new wave of interdisciplinary work, grounded in the natural sciences, is transforming the social sciences. Are the old disciplinary boundaries between anthropology, economics, sociology, political science and psychology holding progress back? Can we create something better?

The computational principles of neural circuitry: what matters most?

The computational principles of neural circuitry: what matters most?

What are the features of the brain that are important to its computational power? Certainly many features can contribute, but how solid is the fundamental data on their contribution? For example, are synaptic plasticity rules precise or coarse? How important are they given the wealth of complex instinctual behaviors in the animal kingdom? We will scrutinize the foundations of computational principles in neurobiology, in both data and theory.

How is it possible to store concepts and propositions in minds and brains?

How is it possible to store concepts and propositions in minds and brains?

Stored concepts and propositions are the very basis of all inferences we make - in fact the basis of thought. Given the fundamental importance of stored information in our minds/brains, it is disturbing how little we know about how such knowledge is encoded and stored.

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