philosophy
A growing body of research shows that religious people seem to enjoy more psychological well-being compared to others.
Like witchcraft, “racecraft” refers to a kind of magical thinking — one that treats race as if it were scientifically meaningful.
From a desert oasis to the Rocky Mountains, being filled with awe makes me a better scientist.
We cannot deduce laws about a higher level of complexity by starting with a lower level of complexity. Here, reductionism meets a brick wall.
The very concept of a “problem with no solution” goes against human nature. But we must accept this harsh reality to have peace in our lives.
Think therapy is self-centered? Think again.
Socrates lived during a time when people did not strive to separate fact from fiction. So how much of what we know about Socrates is true?
Online Shinto communities have existed since the birth of the internet as we know it.
A lot of research assumes happiness is measured by comfort and material conditions. For Aristotle, it is about being the best we can be.
In theory, history is the sum of everything that ever happened; in practice, it’s a story we tell ourselves to make sense of and justify our actions in the present.
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.