philosophy
Is the multiverse real? It’s one of the hottest questions in all of theoretical physics. We invited two astrophysicists to join the debate.
One particular revolution was so important, that at least one historian thinks the 20th century officially began in 1914 and ended in 1991.
The gaze of another person can make us conceive of our body as an object.
One god stands for order, logic, and reason. The other stands for chaos, madness, and drunkenness. Nietzsche thinks you need both.
We value human life in a way that assumes we possess a sacred something not found in beings like lambs, turkeys, or mosquitoes.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the late Vietnamese monk, thought walking could be a profound contemplative practice.
Although saying the wrong thing could often get you killed in ancient civilizations, history shows that the ideal of free speech has deep roots.
When Saint Ambrose of Milan was venerated, his life became public property, its meaning expanding with the unique interpretations of each new generation.
In scientific theories, the Multiverse appears as a bug rather than as a feature. We should squash it.
According to Sigmund Freud, our revulsion at taboos is an attempt to suppress a part of us that actually wants to do them.
Is hope more realistic than despair? Aquinas thinks so.
The death of God didn’t strike Nietzsche as an entirely good thing. Without a God, the basic belief system of Western Europe was in jeopardy.
Despite losing most of his extended family to the guillotine, Tocqueville grew up to become a fervent supporter of democratic revolution.
Non-Western thought is vast and ancient, so why don’t some consider it philosophy?
The language you speak plays an important role in how you evaluate truth.
Most things in the world can be seen in surprisingly different ways.
People who visit Florence seem strangely susceptible to Stendhal syndrome, which is blamed on an overwhelming sense of awe.
From boosting empathy to improving therapy, virtual reality is poised to change our ideas of the self.
In Orwell’s dystopian novel, the government uses Newspeak to control thoughts by controlling language. But thoughts do not require language.
For some people, there is only one thing to live for. They commit their entire being to that thing. They are dangerous.
Pokémon has people wandering the world to enslave wild and magical creatures so they can fight in painful blood sports. What’s fun about that?
If you want to be an authentic person, embrace reality. Don’t try to clamber your way up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Jean Paul Sartre summed up the existentialist idea of “bad faith” through a waiter who acted a bit too much like a waiter.
People can lose their authentic selves when they don’t honestly confront life’s potential, according to the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
Many of his criticisms ring true today.
For such a near-universal concept, the definition of “heroism” is difficult to pin down.
Do your kids a favor and give them the gift of philosophy this Christmas.
Science is a method of inquiry about nature, while scientism is philosophy. And scientism is no longer up to the challenge of meeting the most pressing issues of our day.
Role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons offer a valuable insight: Life is about shifting labels.
No matter how hard we try, we will never reach a final theory that unifies scientific knowledge. The very nature of science doesn’t allow it.