Yesterday I read your Jerry Coyne post and the tremendous discussion it's generated, including comments from Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Massimo Pigliucci, Keith Parsons, Pam Woodley and many others.
I also listened to your podcast with Aaron Rabinowitz. Such disagreements are painful but necessary and helpful in the long run, I believe.
I'm curious to learn how this post on Questioning Direct Realism relates to all that.
Now, my previous post "God's Gender" generated an ongoing discussion between me and Blinn Combs which does indeed directly pertain to your discussion. You might find it interesting.
Living organisms are real, existing things. But mountains are mental constructions, meaningful only to organisms like us. Yes, there is real, external physical stuff there where we see and interact with our mountain. But it is not really a mountain as such.
And sorry to say, the Māori are wrong. They have made a category mistake: it's not an organism either.
A much better case can be made for "the tree that owns itself" in Athens, Georgia, since trees are living organisms and thus externally real things (not just mental constructions). [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_That_Owns_Itself]
On the other hand, I'm all for preserving as much as we can of the natural world, even if requires being silly.
Somewhat related discussion in today's Jerry Coyne posting, q.v.
Yesterday I read your Jerry Coyne post and the tremendous discussion it's generated, including comments from Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Massimo Pigliucci, Keith Parsons, Pam Woodley and many others.
I also listened to your podcast with Aaron Rabinowitz. Such disagreements are painful but necessary and helpful in the long run, I believe.
I'm curious to learn how this post on Questioning Direct Realism relates to all that.
Now, my previous post "God's Gender" generated an ongoing discussion between me and Blinn Combs which does indeed directly pertain to your discussion. You might find it interesting.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2025/01/31/nz-volcano-deemed-to-have-the-rights-of-a-person/
And my reply to New Zealand would be something I previously wrote: https://dwightlyman.substack.com/p/are-mountains-real
Living organisms are real, existing things. But mountains are mental constructions, meaningful only to organisms like us. Yes, there is real, external physical stuff there where we see and interact with our mountain. But it is not really a mountain as such.
And sorry to say, the Māori are wrong. They have made a category mistake: it's not an organism either.
A much better case can be made for "the tree that owns itself" in Athens, Georgia, since trees are living organisms and thus externally real things (not just mental constructions). [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_That_Owns_Itself]
On the other hand, I'm all for preserving as much as we can of the natural world, even if requires being silly.
Dwight, not a Coyne column on gender—one on perceptions of mountains, etc. I’ll see if I can find it