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Social Structures
George Szpiro explores the philosophical ideas that explain why justice — not freedom or efficiency — may better anchor a fair society.
The unanswered questions about sex, love, and pregnancy in space could shape the future of humanity more than we think.
Our minds crave simple, linear narratives. But society rarely follows a straight line.
A.J. Jacobs looks back at what he learned about religion, himself, and modern American culture during “The Year of Living Biblically.”
The digital world will always entail risks for teens, but that doesn’t mean parents aren’t without recourse.
The Gallup World Poll reveals regional peaks and valleys of happiness across all of the continents.
Or are cults the religions we find distasteful?
Skilled hunters adapted to the changing landscape and left tantalizing clues to who they were.
Meet the people paid to rouse the workers of industrial Britain.
Exile is a kind of death of who you once were.
By the end, even his mom wanted him gone.
In ancient Rome, collective bathing was the norm. In the West today, it’s the exception — and that’s too bad.
In a world without clocks, people used common activities in place of time units. How long it took you to go to the toilet mattered.
Debate is a verbal sport with winners and losers. As such, it is less about the truth and more about who looks and sounds the best.
Adolescents actively shape the transformation of religion and become the bearers of new religious patterns, worldviews, and values.
John Templeton Foundation
Most male mammals have little or nothing to do with their kids. Why is our own species different?
We bring multifaceted selves to our interactions, and in these interactions co-create each other again and again.
There is a strong case to be made that the China has moved too slowly to reverse the effects of its one-child policy.
Hinduism emphasizes the journey, whichever path that takes. And it holds us responsible for our own self-improvement.
Cooperation was the first technology.
From politics to culture, we blame “tribalism” for humanity’s problems. This explanation is entirely wrong.
John Templeton Foundation
If you don't mourn in North Korea, you risk being executed.
Why, exactly, should you die for your child?
Using data collected from ancient civilizations across the world, researchers identified the most significant factors in human development. War came out on top.
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?
In New Zealand, ambitious Kiwis want to launch a lawn mowing business; in South Africa, it's cooking gas refills. Start-up dreams vary widely.
The answer to this question depends on how you define "freedom."
We all know assholes. Perhaps, you are one. Now, psychologists are trying to answer one of life's biggest mysteries: What, exactly, makes someone an asshole?