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Jonny Thomson
Author and philosopher
Jonny Thomson taught philosophy in Oxford for more than a decade before turning to writing full-time. He’s a columnist at Big Think and is the award-winning, bestselling author of three books that have been translated into 22 languages.
Jonny is also the founder of Mini Philosophy, a social network of around two million curious, intelligent minds. He's known all over the world for making philosophy accessible, relatable, and fun.
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You are held, shaped, and sustained by a thousand invisible hands.
"For many people, the idea that consciousness is a set of tricks is offensive," the late philosopher told Big Think in 2012. "I think that's a prime mistake."
A conversation about intelligence and consciousness with philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith.
When your head is full of information, how can you actually make use of it?
Wonder is like a guest you haven’t planned for.
One does not simply make a meme go viral.
It makes no sense to talk about a “religious life” and a “public life” — there is just life.
How deep is your kink?
This is my country and this is what we stand for. At least for now.
Evolution may have built our brains, but it didn't build them to find truth.
If happiness is an absolute good, would 1 billion slightly happy people be better than 1 million incredibly happy people?
The child has no control at all and the adult tries to control too much. But there is a third way.
How we handle grief largely depends on our worldview. Here is how three famous philosophers handled the certainty of grief and despair.
Rutger Bregman's "Moral Ambition" wants us to aim our careers not at money but solving the world's biggest problems.
What's the point in fighting a made up monster?
A paradigm should be elastic enough to accommodate new data and broad enough to explain the world. For Rupert Sheldrake, ours does neither.
If you feel like you're missing out on something bigger, you might be feeling saṃvega.
In the tears and laughter of a single life, you find the grief and joy of humanity.
According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as "sub-creation." And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.