{"id":1064,"date":"2008-12-04T14:22:04","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T20:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2008-12-04T14:22:04","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T20:22:04","slug":"vindication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/2008\/12\/04\/vindication\/","title":{"rendered":"Vindication"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been saying that there were problems in William Dembski’s “explanatory filter” for a long, long time. I published a book review of The Design Inference<\/i> back in 1999 that included the following:<\/p>\n

\nAccording to Dembski, because humans identify human agency using the explanatory filter, the explanatory filter encapsulates our general method for detecting agency. Because TDI is equivalent to the explanatory filter, the conclusion of design in TDI is equivalent to concluding agency. Dembski specifies a triad of criteria \u2014 actualization-exclusion-specification \u2014 as sufficient for establishing that an intelligent agent has been at work, and finds that design as he uses it is congruent with these criteria.<\/p>\n

However, Dembski’s triad of criteria for recognition of intelligent agents is also satisfied quite adequately by natural selection. “Actualization” occurs as heritable variation arises. “Exclusion” results as some heritable variations lead to differential reproductive success. “Specification” occurs as environmental conditions specify which variations are preferred. By my reading, biologists can embrace a conclusion of design for an event of biological origin and still attribute that event to the agency of natural selection.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Wilkins and I took up criticism of Dembski’s “explanatory filter” in our 2001 peer-reviewed paper, The advantages of theft over toil: the design inference and arguing from ignorance<\/a>, finding that Dembski’s supposedly fixed and mutually exclusive categories didn’t work so well when one took care in examining how he proposed to place instances in those categories.<\/p>\n

Did Dr. Dembski thank me or us for getting that right? No, don’t be silly. But get it right we did, and there is an admission<\/a> that the “explanatory filter” doesn’t work from William Dembski.<\/p>\n

\n(1) I\u2019ve pretty much dispensed with the EF. It suggests that chance, necessity, and design are mutually exclusive. They are not. Straight CSI is clearer as a criterion for design detection.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know that “straight CSI” offers any improvement; after all, CSI was what the “explanatory filter\/design inference” was supposed to identify. But I guess when it comes to Dembski recognizing faults in his work, we will have to be satisfied with baby steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been saying that there were problems in William Dembski’s “explanatory filter” for a long, long time. I published a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[295,294,212],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antievolution","category-law-and-politics","tag-criticism","tag-explanatory-filter","tag-william-dembski"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"colormag-highlighted-post":false,"colormag-featured-post-medium":false,"colormag-featured-post-small":false,"colormag-featured-image":false,"colormag-default-news":false,"colormag-featured-image-large":false},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Wesley R. Elsberry","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0397e612e6e0615428fba05fe25422d5920a74e203aa8a035183297dcb4ffe5e?s=96&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"I’ve been saying that there were problems in William Dembski’s “explanatory filter” for a long, long time. I published a","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Antievolution","Law and Politics"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":83,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":false,"medium":false,"thumbnail":false},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Wesley R. Elsberry","author_link":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/author\/austringer\/"},"magazine_blocks_comment":18,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0397e612e6e0615428fba05fe25422d5920a74e203aa8a035183297dcb4ffe5e?s=96&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Antievolution<\/a> Law and Politics<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}