Rescuing Aristotle

by Robin Herbert Perhaps you are familiar with the following passage from Bertrand Russell: “Observation versus Authority: To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities. But this is an entirely modern conception, which hardly existed before the seventeenth century. Aristotle maintained …

Neil deGrasse Tyson and the value of philosophy

by Massimo Pigliucci It seems like my friend Neil deGrasse Tyson [1] has done it again: he has dismissed philosophy as a useless enterprise, and actually advised bright students to stay away from it. It is not the first time Neil has done this sort of thing, and he is far from being the only …