(reposted from an old blog 2/2015 Reification is the name for problems that arise when we imagine that a form corresponds to something in the real world in a useful way. All forms are approximations but some are more approximate than others. There is a strong tendency for a form to have a name, which furthers the impression that is somehow real. Words ending in "-ity" "-ist", "-ain" or "-ism" are generally great examples of references to forms that have no useful correspondence to anything in the real world. Such references can usually be corrected by changing the statement that contains the "-ism" term to refer to the actual group that (purportedly) holds some specific "-ism" belief. If such a group can't be identified, the word is a smoke screen for ignorance or an attempt to drum up support for a program that can't be rationally justified. Let's take "terrorism". Presumably, this is the program

Darwin got a lot of miles out of noticing a few things and documenting them in excruciating detail: Tremendous natural variation among and within species and even "races" or varieties. This is the "engine" of change. That's just a fact. Today we know about DNA mutations, transcription errors and many other reasons for variation. Variation itself is "in your face" -- obvious. The mathematical fact that left to themselves, any species would reproduce to cover the Earth . There must be some reason this doesn't happen. Darwin mentioned a lot of reasons, including scarcity of resources, predators, environmental change and more. Descent with modification - the "family tree" of life that is the basis of modern biology. " Natural Selection ", to Darwin, simply meant the fact that every animal is put to the test along with all other members of its species - indeed all occupants of its environment in the contest for survival. It&