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The Night of the Brontosaurus

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Originally published in Finnish in niin & näin online-extra in 2015. In the beginning of April 2015 many dinosaur-buffs had to rub their eyes. The long-necked Brontosaurus, familiar from movies, toys and stamps, was reported to have returned to the fields of science. [1]  This was a surprise likewise for those who knew about Bronto’s unofficial status and for those who did not even know the giant had been absent. What ever happened to Brontosaurus? In order to understand the piece of news, it is good to take a glance on the naming history of Brontosaurus, as well as on the history of paleontological naming conventions in general. Once upon a time there was Brontosaurus. It was the biggest dinosaur known in its time, when its fossils were dug up in 1879 from the Morrison Formation in Wyoming. [2]  It was so big that famous American paleontologist and University of Yale professor O.C. Marsh named the finding Brontosaurus excelsus , meaning thunder lizard (gr. brontê , thu...
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Did Descartes kick dogs? A few words on the Cartesian conception of animals

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Originally published in Finnish, in a shorter form, by the Animal Justice Party of Finland  in 2015. Later revised and published in a longer from, still in Finnish, in Paatos  in 2016.  According to a famous story, French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) once kicked a pregnant dog; when berated by his companions for the action, he replied that the dog’s whimpers are only like the rattling of gears. The story is lively but does not have textual support. In other versions of the story, the dog is kicked by another philosopher, Nicholas Malebranche (1638–1715), generally considered as a follower of Descartes ( e.g. , Watson 2007, 11–12; Hatfield 2008, 423). Confusing the philosophers seems to stem from a common conception that, according to Descartes, animals do not feel or sense anything, not even pain. Descartes’s enthusiasm to kick and dissect living dogs has become a stuff of philosophical legend, [1] even though no direct evidence for such behaviour exists....
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Message in a bottle

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Arthur Calame (1843-1919), Crépuscule Greetings, wanderers on the endless seas of history I have lately been occupied with trying to finish my research article on Margaret Cavendish and skepticism. The progress has been sort of slow but I aim to have a working draft by mid-Autumn or so. Need to take a bit of a break from research in August to work on the application for Marie Sklodowska Cure Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship application, and will also be teaching again in Autumn (more on that later). In the meanwhile, I will be presenting my philosophical research during the coming two weeks in the following places: On the 23rd of July, I will be Ikaalinen, Finland, presenting on the Philosophy of Dinosaurs in XVI Puistofilosofia -week . My presentation will start at 5pm (EEST) in Talo Rannalla. On the 28th of July, I will present online on Émilie Du Châtelet and Voltaire in the Libori Summer School 2026  at 11:30am CEST (12:30pm EEST), organized by the Center for the History of Wom...
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