Dive Summary:
- The University of California at Berkeley is investigating allegations of plagiarism stemming from a website alleging that Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter by Professor Terrence Deacon does not properly cite the ideas used in the book.
- University of Miami philosophy professor Colin McGinn wrote in The New York Review of Books in June that ideas presented in Deacon's book draw heavily on the ideas of Alicia Juarrero, a Prince George's Community College professor emerita, and University of Toronto professor Evan Thompson, though neither is ever cited in the book.
- Deacon maintains that he was unaware of Juarrero's work before he wrote his book and says the similarities are the result of parallel thinking.
From the article:
The varied effects of the Internet age on the world of academic research are well-documented, but a website devoted solely to highlighting one researcher's alleged plagiarism has put a new spin on the matter. The University of California at Berkeley has begun an investigation into allegations of plagiarism in professor Terrence Deacon's book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, largely in response to the website created about the supposed problems with Deacon's book. ...