Shells from the Shore of History

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....

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...

Eduard Riou’s (1833–1900) depiction of an Ichthyosaurus and a Plesiosaurus, from Louis Figuier’s (1819–1894) book La terre avant le deluge (1863) I originally began writing the Scrotum humanum case in Finnish, before agreeing to publish it in Extinct , at which point I translated what I had already written and wrote the rest of the text in English. However, as the text originally began in Finnish, I had also made my own translation from the original German poem by Scheffel into Finnish. Part of the Finnish translation was published in Tieteessä Tapahtuu as part of the Finnish version of the text. I post the original poem, along with the full English translation, and my own Finnish translation as an appendix to the earlier post. Der Ichthyosaurus by Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1828-1886) Es rauscht in den Schachtelhalmen, Verdächtig leuchtet das Meer, Da schwimmt mit Tränen im Auge Ein Ichthyosaurus daher. Ihn jammert der Zeiten Verderbnis, Denn ein sehr bedenklicher Ton War ...

  This post was originally published in  Extinct:The Philosophy of Palaeontology blog  in 2023 in a slightly different form. I am republishing it in my own blog with the permission of Max Dresow. While paleontology studies all kinds of animals and plants that went extinct millions of years ago, it usually only garners recognition from the public by reporting on latest dinosaur discoveries. Particularly new mass and size records, caring for younglings, and whether our favorite dinosaurs were ferocious hunters or timid scavengers, tend to titillate the public at large. The possible return of  Brontosaurus  to scientific terminology was likewise a large news item a few years back. [1] Even though the sources are often scarce, latest research has been able to make several leaps forward, which has allowed rather accurate estimates of the coloring, existence of feathers, and social behavior based on the fossil material. Meanwhile, several old hypotheses, such ...