TobyBartels comments on Bloggingheads: Robert Wright and Eliezer Yudkowsky - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Liron 07 August 2010 06:09AM

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Comment author: TobyBartels 07 August 2010 05:44:48PM 5 points [-]

"‘Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he’s unwilling to be seen with her in public.’ Today the mistress has become a lawfully wedded wife. Biologists no longer feel obligated to apologize for their use of teleological language; they flaunt it. The only concession which they make to its disreputable past is to rename it ‘teleonomy’."

So when unmarried, biology and teleogy happened to have the same last name. But after the marriage, teleology changed her surname to be different? No wonder ordinary people don't understand science!