Massimo Pigliucci
Biographic Data
| ID | 484609 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Massimo Pigliucci |
| GIVEN NAMES | Massimo |
| FAMILY NAME | Pigliucci |
| SIGNATURE | PIGLIUCCI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | City College of New York |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 38 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Borderlines Between Philosophy and Therapy
Presenting philosophy – What science has taught me about it
Presenting philosophy properly, in a way that is clear and accessible to our target audience, is of paramount importance. In this essay I draw on my dual experience as a scientist and a philosopher (as well as science and philosophy communicator) to arrive at some general recommendations for good practice. Specifically, I discuss why presentation matters, whether a bad presentation style is a valid criticism of a philosopher’s work, how we may ad…
Why Alex Rosenberg — and a Number of Other Philosophers — Are Wrong Just about Everything: A Commentary on Scientistic Reductionism
There is a pernicious tendency these days among some philosophers to engage in a “nothing but” attitude about important questions. According to this attitude, consciousness, volition, reason, and morality are “illusions,” “nothing but” the epiphenomena of specific neural processes. Alex Rosenberg is a particularly good (though by no means the only) illustration of this problem, which is why his work is presented and analyzed in some detail in thi…
Science Wars, Scientism, and Think Tanks: A Précis of Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2nd edition) (Pigliucci 2018)
The present contribution offers a précis of the second edition of Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (Pigliucci 2018). The aim of the book is to explore the complex landscape populated by science, pseudoscience, and everything in between, what in philosophy is known as the “demarcation problem.” However, the author maintains that little progress can be done in public understanding and appreciation of science unless we also explore …
How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy
"A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life"
How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life
Nonsense on Stilts
Why Do Irrational Beliefs Mimic Science? The Cultural Evolution of Pseudoscience
Why do irrational beliefs adopt the trappings of science, to become what is known as “pseudoscience”? Here, we develop and extend an epidemiological framework to map the factors that explain the form and the popularity of irrational beliefs in scientific garb. These factors include the exploitation of epistemic vigilance, the misunderstanding of the authority of science, the use of the honorific title of “science” as an explicit argument for beli…
Gould on Morton, Redux: What can the debate reveal about the limits of data
Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem
What sets practice of rigorously tested, sound science apart from pseudoscience? In this volume, contributors seek to answer this question, known to philosophers of science as the demarcation problem. This issue has a long history in philosophy, stretching as far back as early twentieth century and work of Karl Popper. But by late 1980s, scholars in field began to treat demarcation problem as impossible to solve and futile to ponder. However, ess…
What are we to make of the concept of race
The mismeasure of machine: Synthetic biology and the trouble with engineering metaphors
Biology's last paradigm shift. The transition from natural theology to Darwinism
Evolutionary theory went through several phases ever since the publication of the original Darwin-Wallace paper, including neo-Darwinism, the Modern Synthesis and, possibly, a currently ongoing Extended Synthesis. In this paper I tackle the question of whether evolutionary biology ever underwent anything like a Kuhn-style paradigm shift. I conclude that it did not, and is not likely to do so in the future, although a paradigmlike shift did occur …
Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk
Evolution, the Extended Synthesis: The Extended Synthesis
Prominent evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science survey recent work that expands the core theoretical framework underlying the biological sciences. In the six decades since the publication of Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, the spectacular empirical advances in the biological sciences have been accompanied by equally significant developments within the core theoretical framework of the discipline. As a result, evolut…
What, if Anything, Is an Evolutionary Novelty
The idea of phenotypic novelty appears throughout the evolutionary literature. Novelties have been defined so broadly as to make the term meaningless and so narrowly as to apply only to a limited number of spectacular structures. Here I examine some of the available definitions of phenotypic novelty and argue that the modern synthesis is ill equipped at explaining novelties. I then discuss three frameworks that may help biologists get a better in…
On the Concept of Biological Race and Its Applicability to Humans
Biological research on race has often been seen as motivated by or lending credence to underlying racist attitudes; in part for this reason, recently philosophers and biologists have gone through great pains to essentially deny the existence of biological human races. We argue that human races, in the biological sense of local populations adapted to particular environments, do in fact exist; such races are best understood through the common ecolo…
On the Relationship between Science and Ethics
The relationship between ethics and science has been discussed within the framework of continuity versus discontinuity theories, each of which can take several forms. Continuity theorists claim that ethics is a science or at least that it has deep similarities with the modus operandi of science. Discontinuity theorists reject such equivalency, while at the same time many of them claim that ethics does deal with objective truths and universalizabl…
The mismeasure of machine: Synthetic biology and the trouble with engineering metaphors
On the Concept of Biological Race and Its Applicability to Humans
Biological research on race has often been seen as motivated by or lending credence to underlying racist attitudes; in part for this reason, recently philosophers and biologists have gone through great pains to essentially deny the existence of biological human races. We argue that human races, in the biological sense of local populations adapted to particular environments, do in fact exist; such races are best understood through the common ecolo…
What are we to make of the concept of race
What, if Anything, Is an Evolutionary Novelty
The idea of phenotypic novelty appears throughout the evolutionary literature. Novelties have been defined so broadly as to make the term meaningless and so narrowly as to apply only to a limited number of spectacular structures. Here I examine some of the available definitions of phenotypic novelty and argue that the modern synthesis is ill equipped at explaining novelties. I then discuss three frameworks that may help biologists get a better in…
Gould on Morton, Redux: What can the debate reveal about the limits of data
On the Relationship between Science and Ethics
The relationship between ethics and science has been discussed within the framework of continuity versus discontinuity theories, each of which can take several forms. Continuity theorists claim that ethics is a science or at least that it has deep similarities with the modus operandi of science. Discontinuity theorists reject such equivalency, while at the same time many of them claim that ethics does deal with objective truths and universalizabl…
On the Concept of Biological Race and Its Applicability to Humans
Biological research on race has often been seen as motivated by or lending credence to underlying racist attitudes; in part for this reason, recently philosophers and biologists have gone through great pains to essentially deny the existence of biological human races. We argue that human races, in the biological sense of local populations adapted to particular environments, do in fact exist; such races are best understood through the common ecolo…
On the Relationship between Science and Ethics
The relationship between ethics and science has been discussed within the framework of continuity versus discontinuity theories, each of which can take several forms. Continuity theorists claim that ethics is a science or at least that it has deep similarities with the modus operandi of science. Discontinuity theorists reject such equivalency, while at the same time many of them claim that ethics does deal with objective truths and universalizabl…
What, if Anything, Is an Evolutionary Novelty
The idea of phenotypic novelty appears throughout the evolutionary literature. Novelties have been defined so broadly as to make the term meaningless and so narrowly as to apply only to a limited number of spectacular structures. Here I examine some of the available definitions of phenotypic novelty and argue that the modern synthesis is ill equipped at explaining novelties. I then discuss three frameworks that may help biologists get a better in…
Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk
Evolution, the Extended Synthesis: The Extended Synthesis
Prominent evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science survey recent work that expands the core theoretical framework underlying the biological sciences. In the six decades since the publication of Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, the spectacular empirical advances in the biological sciences have been accompanied by equally significant developments within the core theoretical framework of the discipline. As a result, evolut…
Biology's last paradigm shift. The transition from natural theology to Darwinism
Evolutionary theory went through several phases ever since the publication of the original Darwin-Wallace paper, including neo-Darwinism, the Modern Synthesis and, possibly, a currently ongoing Extended Synthesis. In this paper I tackle the question of whether evolutionary biology ever underwent anything like a Kuhn-style paradigm shift. I conclude that it did not, and is not likely to do so in the future, although a paradigmlike shift did occur …
Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem
What sets practice of rigorously tested, sound science apart from pseudoscience? In this volume, contributors seek to answer this question, known to philosophers of science as the demarcation problem. This issue has a long history in philosophy, stretching as far back as early twentieth century and work of Karl Popper. But by late 1980s, scholars in field began to treat demarcation problem as impossible to solve and futile to ponder. However, ess…
What are we to make of the concept of race
The mismeasure of machine: Synthetic biology and the trouble with engineering metaphors
Gould on Morton, Redux: What can the debate reveal about the limits of data
Why Do Irrational Beliefs Mimic Science? The Cultural Evolution of Pseudoscience
Why do irrational beliefs adopt the trappings of science, to become what is known as “pseudoscience”? Here, we develop and extend an epidemiological framework to map the factors that explain the form and the popularity of irrational beliefs in scientific garb. These factors include the exploitation of epistemic vigilance, the misunderstanding of the authority of science, the use of the honorific title of “science” as an explicit argument for beli…
How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life
Nonsense on Stilts
Why Alex Rosenberg — and a Number of Other Philosophers — Are Wrong Just about Everything: A Commentary on Scientistic Reductionism
There is a pernicious tendency these days among some philosophers to engage in a “nothing but” attitude about important questions. According to this attitude, consciousness, volition, reason, and morality are “illusions,” “nothing but” the epiphenomena of specific neural processes. Alex Rosenberg is a particularly good (though by no means the only) illustration of this problem, which is why his work is presented and analyzed in some detail in thi…
Science Wars, Scientism, and Think Tanks: A Précis of Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2nd edition) (Pigliucci 2018)
The present contribution offers a précis of the second edition of Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (Pigliucci 2018). The aim of the book is to explore the complex landscape populated by science, pseudoscience, and everything in between, what in philosophy is known as the “demarcation problem.” However, the author maintains that little progress can be done in public understanding and appreciation of science unless we also explore …
How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy
"A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life"
Presenting philosophy – What science has taught me about it
Presenting philosophy properly, in a way that is clear and accessible to our target audience, is of paramount importance. In this essay I draw on my dual experience as a scientist and a philosopher (as well as science and philosophy communicator) to arrive at some general recommendations for good practice. Specifically, I discuss why presentation matters, whether a bad presentation style is a valid criticism of a philosopher’s work, how we may ad…
The Borderlines Between Philosophy and Therapy
Epistemology (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Biology (5 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Medicine (3 works) · Nonsense (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works)