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What can a philosophy of science really accomplish? As the head of Columbia’s Philosophy of Physics program explains, the field is at its healthiest when philosophy and science are indistinguishable […]

Graphic novel “Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth” is surprisingly fun, despite the book’s subject being analytical philosophy’s search for the foundations of mathematics.

Rebecca Goldstein grew up Orthodox Jewish and became a skeptical philosopher and novelist. How does that complex arc affect her writing?

If you want to rile up a biologist and have no pointed stick handy, try this: Tell her that chemistry or physics are “harder,” more fundamentally “sciencey” sciences than hers. […]

Philosopher BHL has an “existence” rather than existential problem after he made an epic gaffe by quoting a made-up philosopher in his latest book.

I was tooling around the internet for awhile yesterday, looking for a transcript of the Congressional hearings that featured Goldman Sachs executives and traders as the star witnesses, before I […]

An artist has created beautiful sculptures by slicing different colored bits of paper and layering them intricately to produce mesmerising kaleidoscopic patterns.

How do you get people in a democratic society to change their way of life? The theme has come up a lot at gatherings of climate scientists and environmentalists I’ve […]

In his piece in this week’s New Yorker on depression, and depression-related research, Louis Menand asks, “Is psychopharmacology evil, or is it useless?” Increasingly, skeptics say it’s the latter, and […]

During his sitdown with Big Think, Astronaut Leroy Chiao explained the challenges of lengthy trips to space, including bone and muscle loss, as well as the dangers of fatigue. But […]

Quick Quiz: Who is the only artist to be named “man of the century”? Picasso? Did Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica preach love and peace to define the twentieth century? I […]

The legendary author and activist Howard Zinn passed away this evening at the age of 87. In one of his final interviews, Professor Zinn discussed how he would like to […]

To boil down the philosophy behind today’s burgeoning biomimicry field: mother nature knows best. Biomimicry subscribers believe that nature knows (far better than do we technology-obsessed humans) how to get […]

Stephen Fry, the actor, writer, and avid tweeter, paid us a visit Tuesday. Gracious and cheerful while waiting for his closeup, Fry’s interview was a fascinating series of childhood ruminations, […]

When J.D. Salinger passed away recently, many casual fans who only remember him from tattered copies of The Catcher in the Rye lost long ago seemed shocked that he was […]

It was Andy Warhol who said “sex is the biggest nothing of all time,” and whether his coy abstinence is worth comparing to the young novelists analyzed in Katie Roiphe’s […]

In a Hollywood that became increasingly politicized (some moviegoers would say “boring”) over the past five years, James Cameron is generally considered a-political. Among the all-time box office kings, the […]

The Guardian has shined some light onto the obscure, back alleyway of the internet: Freenet. Consider it digital anarchy, a unitary place where people can exchange information without identifying themselves […]

A conversation with the Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley.

Alison Gopnik faced a unique challenge trying to make a name for herself in the hard-nosed male-dominated realm of philosophy while simultaneously following her heart’s desire to work with children.

As the year draws to a close, I want to finish by passing along my personal list of the most interesting essays on political issues from 2009. My selections are […]

Has any other American artist been as overanalyzed as Thomas Eakins?  Pollock, Hopper, Rothko, and others have all been called to the critics’ psychological couch, but only Eakins has gotten […]

After blogger Andrew Sullivan announced last week that he was “leaving the right,” I argued that there is no longer much room on the political right for conservatives in the […]

Why should anyone care about Gossip Girl? Perhaps because it’s an excellent escape from the depth and complexity of the Messy Rest of the World. Perhaps because the kids are […]

Developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik has been in a very small minority among her fellow philosophy scholars; for one, she’s woman, but more importantly, she is convinced that philosophers were doing […]

William Lane Craig ad absurdum One insufferable attribute of the faithful is the ability, nay, the indulgence of equivocating faith to explain all manner of things. Hume said it best: […]

To those who thought Obama would end all war, wipe out global poverty, save the environment, and eradicate terrorism in one fell swoop, they will be sadly disappointed by this […]

1. Authentic Self is achievable through the psychological examination of subconscious paradigms. 2. Perpetuated societal norms are the cause of subconscious paradigms. 3. Psychological examination of an individual does not adress over all causation. 4. Addressing the overall causation is preferable to treating individual cases.

Using the Definition of the Domain of Morality as a sort of logical compass, Conservatism is argued to be “going against nature.”

Every five years, teachers at Zeke Vanderhoek’s school in Washington Heights will be required to take a year-long sabbatical. To do what? He explains: “There’s no requirement. They don’t even […]