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Quote by Elliott Sober

“Philosophers of biology generally recognize that evolutionary fitness (roughly, an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment) is multiply realizable.”

Quote by Elliott Sober

Author

Elliott Sober is a renowned American philosopher known for his work in the fields of scientific philosophy and epistemology. His research focuses on scientific reasoning, probability interpretation, and philosophical methodology. Born on June 6, 1948, Sober has made significant contributions to the field of philosophy, particularly in scientific philosophy. more

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“The upshot is that most philosophers of biology now hold that biological properties supervene on physical properties (where supervenience is taken to include some kind of "in virtue of" relation), and that fitness and other biological properties are not identical with physical properties.”

Kind Virtue Taken Relation Property Philosopher Biology Identical

Author:Elliott Sober

“Just as thought experiments can't show that vitalism is true (or that it is false), they also can't show that dualism is true (or that it is false).”

Shows Experiments Dualism

Author:Elliott Sober

“It can be a necessary conceptual truth that pains are painful without this ruling out the physicalist thesis that immaterial minds are impossible or the thesis that conscious states supervene on physical states. The necessity involved in these claims is nomological necessity, not metaphysical necessity (assuming that these are different).”

Mind Different States Pain Impossible Involved Conscious Claims Assuming Painful Metaphysical Ruling Thesis

Author:Elliott Sober

“I disagree with the widely held view that it is metaphysical necessity, not nomological, that matters in the mind/body problem.”

Mind Matter Problem Body Views Disagree Metaphysical Mind Body

Author:Elliott Sober

“"Tiger is a natural kind" and "Tiger is a historical particular" are incompatible with each other, and evolutionary biology provides a reason for favoring the latter over the former.”

Kind Reason Natural Particular Historical Former Latter Biology Tigers Evolutionary Biology

Author:Elliott Sober

“Evolutionary biologists often avoid using the term "race" because there is so much racist baggage that comes with the term. However, they are often okay with the idea that the genealogy of human groups within our species can sometimes be inferred in much the same way as the genealogy of different species.”

Way Humans Ideas Different Sometimes Term Race Groups Okay Species Racist Baggage Biologist Genealogy

Author:Elliott Sober

“The racial categories that are used in a given society (for example, in contemporary America) are biologically meaningless, but sometimes it turns out that a vernacular racial category has biological reality.”

Sometimes Reality America Used Turns Given Example Contemporary Categories Meaningless Vernacular

Author:Elliott Sober

“Instead of thinking of the question of race genealogically, and leaving it open whether vernacular races are genealogical units, the interest in biomedicine has been to determine whether vernacular racial categories are medically useful in diagnosis and treatment. There is on-going debate about this.”

Thinking Has Beens Interest Race Leaving Determine Debate Treatment Categories Units Diagnosis Vernacular

Author:Elliott Sober

“The indispensability argument says (roughly) that if you have ample reason to accept an empirical scientific theory that makes indispensable use of mathematics, and that theory entails that numbers exist, then you have ample reason to accept that numbers exist. The argument affirms the antecedent of this conditional, and concludes that you have ample reason to believe that numbers exist. What is striking about this argument is that it seems to show that the empirical reasons that suffice for accepting a scientific theory also suffice for accepting a metaphysical claim.”

Ifs Believe Reason Use Shows Seems Numbers Accepting Theory Argument Claims Mathematics Indispensable Metaphysical Scientific Theory Conditional

Author:Elliott Sober

“From the fact that E is evidence for T and the fact that T entails M, it doesn't follow that E is evidence for M.”

Author:Elliott Sober