Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Sir Alister Hardy (1896-1985)
A biologist, he was the chief zoologist on the ship Discovery during the British 1925-27 expedition to the Antarctic. The experience furthered his interest in marine biology, which led Hardy in 1938 to found the Oceanographic Laboratory in Edinburgh and the journal Bulletins of Marine Ecology and to write many books and articles. It was…
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Ernst Haeckel
German zoologist and influential advocate of organic evolution. Haeckel grew up in Merseburg, Germany, and initially trained to be a doctor, earning a medical degree in Berlin in 1857. Along the way, however, he decided on a scientific career and studied botany, comparative anatomy, and embryology before settling upon zoology as a discipline. Appointed full…
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Hans Friedrich K Gunther (1891-1968)
A professor of anthropology at the University of Jena and the most distinguished academic advocate of the racial superiority of Nordics on which Hitler built his pro-Aryan policies. Gunther accepted that not all Germans were Nordics tall, fair-haired, of fair complexion, and blue-eyed but maintained that there were more pure Nordics than members of other…
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Great chain of being
Hierarchical classification of all life on Earth. It is one of the most persistent conceptions about the nature of life and the universe in Western history. Originally presented by Roman philosopher Plotinus in the third century B.C.E., the theory states that all life indeed, everything in the known universe is connected in a single hierarchical…
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Grape cure
The widespread belief for centuries throughout the grape-growing areas of Europe that grapes, grape juice, and grape products generally have curative properties. It has not been a dominant belief but one of those examples of folklore in the background of all cultures, a cure in the same category as goats milk, honey, and much else.…
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Sylvester graham
American dietary reformer, minister, and founder of Grahamism. Sylvester Graham was born in West Suffield, Connecticut, into a family with a long history of service in the ministry and as physicians. He worked in a variety of occupations, including farmhand, clerk, and teacher, before contracting tuberculosis in the 1820s. He attended Amherst Academy in 1823…
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Stephen Jay Gould (1941- )
A major contributor to the pseudoscience debate. His various books and articles, all aimed at the general reader, make clear what is acceptable as legitimate science and what is not. At the same time he shows that scientific understanding is open to amendment as our knowledge and comprehension grow. So, for example, the whole new…
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Goethe’s color theory
The theory of color as proposed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). In addition to being an eminent German playwright and poet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Goethe also made contributions to science. One of these was an attempt to overthrow the orthodox Newtonian account of how normal white light is actually…
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Comte Joseph De Gobineau
A French nobleman whose race theories influenced the Nazis. Gobineau believed that some races were superior to others the tall, blond, blue-eyed Nordic type was the most superior; the brown Negroid type was the least. Composer Richard Wagner (1813-83) was attracted by Gobineau’s theories; they were also seized on and developed by his son-in-law Houston…
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Goat glands
Just one of the many pseudoscientific “cures” that form part of the long history of rejuvenation medicine. Rejuvenation medicine usually deals with methods used to overcome erectile dysfunction. These methods can include certain foods, potions, and magical spells.
Got any book recommendations?