From mysterious villages to absurdism at the gallows, these books explore the origins, consequences, and possible responses to nihilism.

L..A. Paul spent her career at Yale studying the decisions that remake you from the inside out — and why rational thinking fails exactly when you need it most.

"The thing that the nihilist recognizes is that the values he or she holds are not grounded in anything other than their own preferences."

Santa's done really well this year.

Neuroscience isn’t dissolving philosophy’s hardest problems — it’s forcing us to rethink where they live.

Bryan Washington, author of “Palaver,” reflects on how moving to Japan and learning a new language shaped his writing.

Earth orbits the Sun while spinning on its tilted axis, with two annual occasions marking that maximal tilt. That's where solstices arise.

Having explored the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest, and the edge of space, Victor Vescovo knows what awe feels like in its most dramatic forms. What surprised him most was how often that same feeling appears in everyday life.

The great books aren’t just classics — they’re cultural Schelling points that give our minds a place to meet up in the world of ideas.

Each of these stories rests on a foundation of great ideas that will scare you to death and make you think.

Philosophers rarely change their minds. These thinkers did — often at social and professional cost.

How to look cool in post-war France in black and white photos.

Why some of philosophy’s strangest scenarios are more than mental games.

Want to study philosophy but skip some of its heavier tomes? These five novels are a great place to start. (Existential despair guaranteed.)

The child has no control at all and the adult tries to control too much. But there is a third way.

From bondage to freedom: Baruch Spinoza’s guide to the rational life.

If you feel like you're missing out on something bigger, you might be feeling saṃvega.

That Nietzsche quote might not mean what you think it does.

“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.”

When Star Trek's Captain Picard and The Office's Dwight Schrute channel philosopher Karl Jaspers, we can all benefit.

The Malling-Hansen writing ball, with its potential and limitations, redefined Nietzsche’s philosophical and creative expression.

Self-help often distills philosophical ideas for the modern ear. Sometimes, its better to go back to the source.

The tech world’s fixation on artificial intelligence has spawned beliefs and rituals that resemble religion — complete with digital deities, moral codes, and threats of damnation.

“Could you create a god?” Nietzsche's titular character asks in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."

Plato's cave metaphor illustrates the cognitive trap of ignorance, where we may be unaware of the limitations of our understanding.

For J.R.R. Tolkien, the single most important element of a fairy tale was the dramatic reversal of misfortune in the story's ending.

If you're an atheist with a vocation, who laid that path for you?

Why do we tip waitstaff and cabdrivers but not flight attendants and retail clerks?

By focusing on the role of human experience, we may uncover new insights on the fundamental structure of reality.

Philosophy cures no disease and invents nothing new. What's even the point?