Giants and dwarves, designers of no import

“We are artifacts designed by natural selection,” Daniel Dennett wrote, to which Fodor said no. “Darwin’s idea is much deeper, much more beautiful, and appreciably scarier: We are artifacts designed by selection in exactly the sense in which the Rockies are artifacts designed by erosion; which is to say that we aren’t artifacts and nothing designed us. We are, and always have been, entirely on our own.”

from Jerry Fodor’s obit in a 2017 New Yorker. Via Nicholas Gruen.

This is the prior art I’ve been looking for… —for— why we should.

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We are so good at making, even if just making do, we that make gods into makers, creators in our own image, even in just-so stories of neo-darwinism (Pinker, Dennet et al). Such that we give gods all the credit, even when we are the ones to blame.

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And earlier to day I updated Flowcharting faith-based faith versus faith-obeying-reason with links to my more recent posts on worldbuilding (and an anti-catholic worldbuilding rant). You probably didn’t get an email about that.

Went to this earlier today.

Maria Kunda made an excellent dip.

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Reposted at whyweshould.loofs-samorzewski.com.