Thinking

Would you really want that, anyway?

After 70 years, “The Power of Positive Thinking” remains incredibly popular, even though its critics find the book to be mostly fluff.

It might seem petty and shallow to get upset over a bad gift, but there’s often a deeper reason behind the feeling.

After 10,000 years of civilization, have we figured out what virtue is?

Every Christmas could be the last Christmas.

We could even benefit from more whataboutisms — if they’re used properly.

Think you should speak about 40% of the time in conversation? How about 70%?

It actually furthers the partisan divide.

To be successful at bonsai cultivation, you must acquire the perseverance and unconditional kindness normally reserved for devout monks.

Why, exactly, don’t you trust that person’s opinion?

Do our thoughts have any meaning whatsoever?

Some animals were even assigned their own lawyers.

How far should we boldy go?

Is it deliberate fraud or just bad research?

Be famous within five miles.

What’s the point of all that money?

We’re still using 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid a year, but burials are becoming far less common.

Why, exactly, should you die for your child?

Nietzsche both wished he was as stupid as a cow so he wouldn’t have to contemplate existence, and pitied cows for being so stupid that they couldn’t contemplate existence.

People tend to underestimate how much a friend they’ve lost contact with would enjoy a simple note saying “hi.”

There are two conceptions of free will: “straight” and “mixed.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss Enlightenment philosopher who praised a simple life and inspired the worst of the French Revolution.

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

Ideas often taken for granted in the United States and Europe about what it means to be a person are, quite simply, not shared with other cultures.

It’s not a huge leap to imagine we could target the biological processes that mediate our behaviours.

In the philosophy of Star Wars, the Sith are evil because they surrender to passion. But is a life of total rationality a “good” life?

In the wake of the pandemic, the crystal industry boomed, with customers hoping the stones might relieve a little anxiety.

We often laugh at inappropriate things, but not when we are emotionally invested. Laughter cannot be serious. So, can we ever laugh at death?

Since at least 600 BC, people have been mesmerized by the concept of the infinite.

A philosopher unpacks the paradox in using the word “evil.”