Philosophy

Philosophy

Examine life’s biggest questions, from ethics to existence, with curiosity and critical thinking.

The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe.
Genghis Khan
Unlike other world rulers, Genghis Khan was laid to rest not inside an elaborate mausoleum but an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia. Maybe.
time
Modern cosmology conjectures different possible fates for the Universe and thus for the end of time. Details depend on which model is right.
success
Success can be measured in different ways. When it hinges entirely on our careers, we fall victim to a devastating addiction.
Since at least 600 BC, people have been mesmerized by the concept of the infinite.
inflationary beginning big bang
No matter how beautiful, elegant, or compelling your idea is, if it disagrees with observation and experiment, it's wrong.
A philosopher unpacks the paradox in using the word "evil."
deaths of despair
Deaths of despair are skyrocketing in the U.S., while at the same time, they are falling in other wealthy countries. What are we doing wrong?
Pain makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. What's puzzling is why so many of us choose to seek out painful experiences.
John Templeton Foundation
multiverse
Quite a lot, actually, even though it has no identifiable value as a scientific concept.
words for love
You can love a romantic partner, but also a pet, a book, God, or the sound of someone’s voice. We need many more words for love.
personal branding
Brands manufacture meaning through consensus; people must strive to create their own.
just asking questions
Media provocateurs and conspiracy theorists insist that they're "just asking questions." No, they aren’t.
naive realism
We tend to assume our view of the world is objective and accurate rather than subjective and biased — which is what it really is.
extraterrestrial
There are billions of potentially inhabited planets in the Milky Way alone. Here's how NASA will at last discover and measure them.
What Odysseus needed from his father was something more important: the comfort of being a son.
genius
You've heard of Stephen Hawking. Ever heard of Renata Kallosh? Didn't think so.
John Templeton Foundation
greater fool theory
An analogy explains the greater fool theory: You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away; you just have to run faster than the other guy.
With two different black hole event horizons now directly imaged, we can see that they are, in fact, rings, not disks. But why?
climate change
Any alien civilization that grows to span an entire planet would spark the same effects that we have. So, what do we do about it?