From Constructivist Foundations, a special issue on second-order science. Howard Sankey (Melbourne): Scientific Realism and Basic Common Sense. Michael Stuart (Toronto): Imagination: A Sine Qua Non of Science. From Expositions, a special section on Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos, including Bernard G. Prusak (King’s College): The Ethics of Metaethics; Regan Lance Reitsma (King’s College): The Peculiar Flavor of Nagel’s Metaethics; Micah Lott (BC): Explaining Value: Nagel on Normative Realism and the Teleology of Evolution; and Francisco J. Ayala (UC-Irvine): Evolution and Value. Emanuele Serrelli (Milan): The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: A Metascientific View of Evolutionary Biology, and Some Directions to Transcend its Limits. Carmen Maria Marcous (FSU): Concerning the Unity of Knowledge and the Aim of Scientific Inquiry: A Critique of E.O. Wilson’s Consilience Worldview. Sean Carroll on why physicists should stop saying silly things about philosophy. John Horgan interviews Carlo Rovelli on how “philosophical superficiality” has harmed physics. Kevin Heng on the nature of scientific proof in the age of simulations: Is numerical mimicry a third way of establishing truth? Beauty does not equal truth: Scientists prize elegant theories, but a taste for simplicity is a treacherous guide — and it doesn’t even look good. Despite esteem for science, the public is at odds with scientists on major issues.
