Hello there, it has been some time, hasn’t it? Nicely, you’ll be listening to extra from Extinct this yr: we’re re-launching with a brand new method, and new administration.
Extinct was formally launched waaaay again in January 2016. We printed no less than 4 posts a month for 2 years, switching to at least one put up a month in 2018 and—as is the wont of such blogs—petering by the top of 2019, managing over 130 posts. The weblog by no means formally stopped, however slightly the 4 of us turned much less in a position to contribute by way of a mix of burnout (4 posts a month between the 4 of us for 2 years), transferring on to different issues and, we prefer to think about, the weblog having more-or-less met the targets we’d set for it.
In 2015, the 4 of us—Adrian Currie, Leonard Finkelman, Joyce Havstad and Derek Turner—thought the time was ripe to advertise the philosophy of paleontology, and {that a} weblog can be the appropriate venue for it. We hoped that, if the weblog have been common sufficient, we’d have much less discussions with colleagues that started with: “you do the philosophy of what…?”.
We additionally wished an area the place we might share and develop concepts, and to succeed in out to of us in different disciplines. On condition that we have been within the enterprise of making an attempt to open up new arenas for analysis, we wished to keep away from founder results (see Joyce’s put up about such results within the philosophy of biology) and, as such, aimed to incorporate as many views as we might. So, the weblog consisted of normal contributions from the 4 of us peppered with common (and great!) visitor posts from paleontologists, historians, social scientists, paleoartists, and varied others (see this put up for a fuller account of what we have been making an attempt to do, together with some, if we’d say so ourselves, fairly lovely photos).
Writing on the tail-end of 2022 (2023 by the point this seems!) the philosophy of paleontology (or the historic sciences, or the paleosciences, or the geosciences – let’s not get caught up on labels) appears to us to be thriving. We actually have much less of these “philosophy of what?” conversations. Most particularly, a bunch of researchers, notably early profession researchers, are exploring the boundaries of philosophy, paleontology, and associated disciplines. A couple of latest examples vary from growing the notion of the dwelling fossil idea, querying how explanations of mass extinctions develop and how they could join with the ‘sixth’ mass extinction, novel accounts of narrative, an entire collected quantity on the borders of archaeology and philosophy, new value determinations of uniformatarianism, examinations of proof in archaeoastronomy, and the listing goes on. As such, it appears time for the weblog to restart, however now extra explicitly with an eye fixed in the direction of offering a platform for all these new of us coming into the dialogue.
Max Dresow has agreed to take over the weblog: we’re passing the baton into his succesful arms. In its new incarnation Extinct will probably be much less centered on a set of particular contributors, as a substitute centered on visitor posts. The 4 of us will nonetheless be round, serving to out right here and there and perhaps even (gosh!) offering the occasional put up. So, look forwards to listening to from him quickly.
The 4 of us wouldn’t solely prefer to thank Max for taking the weblog forwards, however to as soon as once more thank the entire contributors and readers that made the venture such a wealthy delight for these 4 years. Lengthy could Extinct proceed beneath its new administration!