Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Welcome to The Well, a publication by the John Templeton Foundation and Big Think.
“People on average look at their email about 50 times a day...
they look at their Facebook 20 some times a day, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s Instagram, there’s your phone calls, there’s whatever it is you have to do. And what this means for attention is that we’re challenged, that focused attention is an endangered species. However, we need that focus to get work done well. So it’s a real problem.”
“Common wisdom says we have a self and that self is the source of our free will, but...
the subject of the self is riddled with paradoxes. Because the mind has been categorized as something “nonphysical,” its definition alone places the self outside of physical cause-and-effect, and beyond the scope of science. However, as with many philosophical quandaries that involve the proposal of a thesis and the emergence of a counter-thesis (or antithesis, in the words of Hegel), a synthesis often emerges, reconciling seemingly disparate views into a more coherent and sensible perspective.”
