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A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think
Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.
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Slavoj Žižek was born, writes books, and will die.
What's the Big Idea? Hey, did you know that sex improves your self-esteem? It's also linked to increased bladder control, reduced depression, fewer colds, pain-relief from the rush of oxytocin that precedes orgasm, better teeth (seminal plasma contains zinc; who knew?), and "a happier prostate ...
What's the Big Idea? Philosopher Slavoj Žižek is fundamentally anti-capitalist, and yet, the man who describes himself as a “complicated Marxist” also expresses palpable irritation at the idea that capitalists are nothing more than egomaniacal psychopaths. In a recent interview with Big Think ...
What's the Big Idea? There are not only wrong answers -- there are also wrong questions, says Slavoj Žižek, philosopher and author of Big Think's most recent Book of the Month. And sometimes the way we ask a question obscures the answer. Watch the interview: For example, "Did you ...
In this third video from our interview with Slavoj Žižek, the philosopher and author of Big Think's most recent Book of the Month answers the question, "Which summer film are you anticipating most?" Watch the interview: Despite the fact that it depicts the last 24 hours on Earth and is ...
"We don't really want what we think we want," says philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It's a strange, almost exotic thought at a time when many of us are inundated daily with the prospect of infinite choice. You can no longer buy a product, it seems, without expressing your opinion. (Do you want whiter ...
What's the Big Idea? Before neuroscience and quantum physics, there was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The 19th century German idealist revolutionized Western thought, and every great thinker since has been working in his shadow, says Slavoj Žižek, the Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic ...
Editor's note: The following is an edited excerpt from Slavoj Žižek's book, "Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism." [One of the only schools] of thought that fully accepts the inexistence of the big Other is Buddhism. Is the solution then to be found in Buddhist ...