Jonny Thomson
Jonny Thomson taught philosophy in Oxford for more than a decade before turning to writing full-time. He’s a staff writer at Big Think, where he writes about philosophy, theology, psychology, and occasionally other subjects when he dares step out of his lane. His first book, Mini Philosophy, is an award-winning, international bestseller, and has been translated into 20 languages. His second book, Mini Big Ideas, was published in 2023.
Your life is far more arbitrary than you might think.
Unstable politics and virtue signaling are responsible for creating bureaucratic nightmares.
Attempts to normalize abnormal development could prevent individuals in need of help from seeking it.
These bizarre mollusks have the ability to regenerate their bodies and to absorb other organisms’ attributes.
The wise, the old, and the experienced matter to a full and happy life.
Apart from divine authority, is there an ethical basis for right and wrong?
Traditional Chinese medicine and Vietnamese culture are driving the pangolin to extinction.
Life is governed by unspoken rules. How do you know you’re following them correctly?
Milgram’s experiment is rightly famous, but does it show what we think it does?
When does a healthy desire for wealth morph into greed? And how can we stop it?
Why saying, “I don’t know,” might be the best thing you can do.
Hippocrates overturned conventional wisdom and invented modern medicine.
Diogenes was no doubt odd, but Cynicism might just help our overcrowded lives.
A famous thought experiment from the 1970s is more relevant today than ever before.
Truth might be hard to find, but we can take steps to eliminate common cognitive biases.
Is working from home the ultimate liberation or the first step toward an even unhappier “new normal”?
Seek pleasure and avoid pain. Why make it more complicated?
What’s the difference between brainwashing and rehabilitation?
If you ask your maps app to find “restaurants that aren’t McDonald’s,” you won’t like the result.
Many people believe that in the face of profound evil, they would have the courage to speak up. It might be harder than we think.
Philosopher and logician Kurt Gödel upended our understanding of mathematics and truth.
Once a book is published, who gets to interpret it? Us or the author?
Using urinals, psychological collages, and animated furniture to shock us into reality.
How imagining the worst case scenario can help calm anxiety.
Think of the nicest person you know. The person who would fit into any group configuration, who no one can dislike, or who makes a room warmer and happier just […]
Are we enslaved by the finer things in life?
Democritus also did not believe in free will but was still known as the “laughing philosopher.”