Creation and Evolution, by Lenn E. Goodman

7. Evolution and Creation

Many consider that Evolution and Creation are alternatives and therefore that one must make a choice between these two explanations of the natural world. This difficulty has dogged the debate since Darwin presented his explanation of the multiplicity and development of species in the 19th C. and even before. The issue has therefore become polarised and often the subject of bitter controversy. H...

Goodman, 'grue' and Hempel*

It is now commonly accepted that N. Goodman's predicate "grue" presents the theory of confirmation of C. G. Hempel (and other such theories) with grave difficulties. The precise nature and status of these "difficulties" has, however, never been made clear. In this paper it is argued that it is very unlikely that "grue" raises any formal difficulties for Hempel and appearances to the contrary ar...

Relativism: Protagoras and Nelson Goodman

پروتاگوراس در یونان باستان و نلسون گودمن در دورۀ جدید دو تن از برجسته­ترین مدافعان نسبی­گرایی به شمار می­روند. گاه ممکن است نثر آن دو فریبنده بنماید، و چه بسا این امر شرح و تفسیر منظور و مراد حقیقی آنها را دشوار سازد. پروتاگوراس و گودمن، با وجود برخی تفاوتها، به دفاع از این دیدگاه به ظاهر افراطی می­پردازند که همه وقایع، به معنای حقیقی کلمه، وابسته به دیدگاه انسان است. هدف این مقاله شرح و بررسی ...

Creation vs. Evolution

Similarity After Goodman

In a famous critique, Goodman dismissed similarity as a slippery and both philosophically and scientifically useless notion. We revisit his critique in the light of important recent work on similarity in psychology and cognitive science. Specifically, we use Tversky's influential set-theoretic account of similarity as well as Gärdenfors's more recent resuscitation of the geometrical account to ...