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We are told not to fear terrorism. But there are 3 reasons why we should
We are all much more scared of terrorism than we used to be. In the U.S., about one in three people are worried about being the victim of a terrorist attack. In Europe, terrorism consistently makes it...
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5 philosophical problems with immortality
The dance with death has long intrigued humanity, and it could be argued that our awareness of our own mortality is what sets us apart from other animals. Albert Camus, the existentialist philosopher,...
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The worth of wild ideas
Earlier this month, the consciousness science community erupted into chaos. An open letter, signed by 124 researchers—some specializing in consciousness and others not—made the provocative claim that...
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Why the free will debate hinges on intent
Two men stand by a hangar in a small airfield at night. One is in a police officer’s uniform, the other dressed as a civilian. They talk tensely while, in the background, a small plane is taxiing to...
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How advances in philosophy made the world safer for scientists
While it is common to imagine scientists working alone in their labs like latter-day wizards in their tower, science today is a vast group effort done by people who live and work in societies. What...
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A student asked her cosmology professor the meaning of life. Here was his...
Copyright © 2022 by Brian Thomas Swimme, from Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe. Excerpted by permission of Counterpoint Press. I had just finished my lecture on Einstein’s special...
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The “Nietzsche Thesis”: Why we don’t really care about truth
At the end of his life, Herman Melville (author of Moby-Dick) wrote a book called The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. The novel is set aboard a steamboat and is a collection of vignettes involving...
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Students use calculators to do math. Let them use ChatGPT to write
When ChatGPT was launched to the public a little under a year ago, users were amazed by the AI chatbot’s knowledge, conversation skills, and writing ability. After being prompted by a human user, the...
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“Terminalism”— discrimination against the dying — is the unseen prejudice of...
When you are dying, you are placed in a hospice. Often, this is a real, brick-and-mortar hospice with palliative care and psychological support. At other times, though, the hospice is a metaphorical...
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Philosopher tells us why the elderly owe the young compensation for the COVID...
There has never been such a widespread and stringent lockdown as the one for COVID. There was some kind of social distancing for the Spanish Flu after World War I and localized lockdowns during Ebola...
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4 practical life lessons from Taoism
Taoism (also written Daoism) is a religion, philosophy, and set of practices that arose in ancient China. Established by the semi-legendary Lao Tzu, and the slightly better accounted for Zhuangzi, its...
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A revolting thought experiment tests the limits of philosophical exploration
You may want to put down your coffee and finish your cornflakes; this thought experiment isn’t for everyone. It comes from a paper recently published in the Journal of Controversial Ideas and written...
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Turing and Wittgenstein: An entanglement of math and philosophy
In the spring term of 1939, the University of Cambridge offered two distinct courses on “Foundations of Mathematics” — an intellectual extravagance of sorts. However, there was little danger of waste,...
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Yes, we have free will. No, we absolutely do not.
You’re thirsty so you reach for a glass of water. It’s either a freely chosen action or the inevitable result of the laws of nature, depending on who you ask. Do we have free will? The question is...
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A brief history of (linear) time
It’s a fundamental part of human nature to invent different ways of seeing the world. Our cultural, historical, and personal upbringing all play their part, providing concepts and belief structures...
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Undergraduates’ average IQ has fallen 17 points since 1939. Here’s why.
It’s commonly cited that undergraduates are significantly smarter than average, with IQs ranging from 115 to 130. But as a team of Canadian researchers showed in a recently published meta-analysis,...
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Beyond “McMindfulness”: How Buddhism actually eases suffering
While working with Buddhist refugees in Nepal, medical anthropologist Adrie Kusserow met a monk who had fled torture in Tibet. You’d think that being driven from his ancestral homeland after nearly...
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Can AI write authentic poetry?
“Time — a few centuries here or there — means very little in the world of poems.” There is something reassuring about Mary Oliver’s words. Especially in an era of rapid change, there is comfort to be...
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Thinking about God may encourage risk taking
Most God-fearing Americans feel the Almighty has got their back: Some 97 percent of those who believe in the God of the Bible say God has protected them at some point. So how does believing one has a...
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How fear of regret influences our decisions
One of the primary motivators of human behavior is avoiding regret. Before the legendary behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky formalized prospect theory and loss aversion, they...
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5 books that shaped 21st-century philosophy
If a person can name a dozen philosophy books, the odds are that most of them are older. Some might even be ancient. This certainly adds to the perception of philosophy as something outdated and easily...
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Are religions simply cults that have gone mainstream?
How would you feel if your next-door neighbor was in a cult? What if your son or daughter came home to inform you they had joined a “community of like-minded people”? In 2004, the theologian Paul Olson...
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Daniel Kahneman’s transformative insights on rationality and happiness
In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote a book about the soul — or, more accurately, different types of souls. For Aristotle, a soul is what turns a lifeless lump of flesh into a walking, talking, singing,...
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Dan Carlin on humanity’s uncontrollable “Prometheus complex”
Do not annoy the gods. If there’s one lesson classical mythology teaches us, it’s that you should know your limits and mind yourself. Beware of hubris: the act of boasting arrogance and...
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6 books that shaped Japanese philosophy
Picking a few books to characterize an entire intellectual tradition is tough. That’s because, in my view, history isn’t driven by “great men” like the 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle thought. On...
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Everyday Philosophy: “Should I have to work the same hours as my inefficient...
“I work for a PR company. It’s big enough that you’d know it. I’m really good at my job. That’s not arrogant. It takes me 30 minutes to do things my colleagues take half a day to do. In my mind, they...
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Everyday Philosophy: “Can I ever swear in front of kids?”
“I’ve got two kids — 3 and 7 — and I’ve done a pretty good job at not swearing around them. We went on the bus last Tuesday, and two middle-aged men got on next to us. They started dropping F-bombs...
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Everyday Philosophy: “Is it OK to ghost the people you date?”
“I recently met a guy on a dating app and we went on a few dates. He was nice enough, and there were no red flags, but after the fourth date, I could tell things weren’t clicking, at least for me....
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4 philosophers on how to live a happy life
Philosophy can often seem overly concerned with terribly abstract questions, such as whether chairs truly exist. However, the questions of philosophy cover all areas of human interest. Perhaps most...
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Everyday Philosophy: “Is there anything wrong with trauma dumping?”
I have a friend at work; she’s kind of a friend, but only ever a “work friend.” We have lunch together and get along, but nothing more. Lately, she’s started to spend our lunch breaks ‘trauma dumping’...
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