Search
Aesthetic Theory
The ideology, economics, and psychology behind the modern world's draining of color from homes, cars, and everyday objects.
Skim or scan this. No need to deep-read.
In post-apocalyptic fiction, imagined futures turn today’s political and cultural tensions into geography.
A preview of the latest novel by the National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson.
What made Leonardo da Vinci last wasn’t magic — it was process — and his study of fluids can help us win the long game.
The strange, undulating sound of mathematics.
Barthes is dead — long live the artist.
5mins
"I think happiness is not a smiling face, it's more a smiling soul."
Pessimissts are never disappointed, but are they also kinder?
Common knowledge says the maximum size of a PDF is as big as 40% of Germany — but that’s a gross underestimate.
“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.”
"Lookism" is prevalent and harmful. So why do so few take it seriously?
The artistic and the mathematical mind are not so far apart.
Today's philosophy students would be justified in asking, "What does any of this have to do with living?"
"We do not experience primarily because we have brains; we experience because we are alive."
Will "Sausage Party" survive the test of time?
The writer’s tragic death at age 46 has led many to view him as a tortured artist. Here’s why this label is reductive.
1mins
What would the world be like if we focused on “the inherent beauty of math,” rather than its technical aspects? A statistician reflects:
Is it ever possible for God to violate the laws of nature?
Everyone has to learn about sex somehow. Today, billions of people are learning about it from porn.
Is a repressed memory always so bad?
Just being a pessimist, cynic, or apathetic doesn't make you a nihilist.
While weltschmerz — literally "world-pain" — may be unpleasant, it can also spur us to change things for the better.
If music is a window onto truth, what does screaming reveal?
“I believe that in the future, there will be a Francis Bacon of AI art,” Saltz tells Big Think. “We just haven't seen that artist yet.”
3mins
What is perception, really? Philosopher Alva Noë on why perception is a puzzling phenomenon:
Big Think columnist Adam Frank makes the case for why the 2023 video game Alan Wake 2 is a boundary-pushing piece of art.
You've certainly seen the paintings — but they don't depict what you think they do. Benjamin Moser discusses with Big Think.
Rejecting romanticism, these famous paintings depict war as it really is: sadistic and senseless.
The answer may lie in the power to see far, far beyond yourself.