Philosophy

Philosophy

In my previous post, I summarized my response to Christian de Weerd, who denied that a Darwinian approach to consciousness is even possible. I argued that consciousness science has unnecessarily insulated itself from the evolutionary tools that revolutionized our understanding of every other biological phenomenon, and that treating human consciousness as the paradigm case distorts our picture of consciousness as a natural phenomenon spanning millions of species across millions of years.

In January 1986, NASA engineers knew the Space Shuttle Challenger's O-rings had never been tested in freezing temperatures. They recommended delaying the launch. Managers asked: Could the engineers prove it was unsafe? They couldn't-they could only say the system hadn't been designed for these conditions. Under pressure, the engineers withdrew their recommendation. The next morning, Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts.

Set beyond a fairly unassuming entrance - save for a red carpet lining the stone steps - Bertrand's Townhouse is a newly opened hotel (just this month, in fact) in London' s Bloomsbury neighborhood. Tucked down a street just off from the pretty Bloomsbury Square, the hotel is named for Bertrand Russell, the renowned British philosopher and writer. He was part of the Bloomsbury Set (sort of - he was considered to be more on the periphery), a network of British writers, artists, and intellectuals.

Two senior physicians who had read our first book, Rethinking Health Care Ethics (2018), noted that in their clinical work, they inescapably address many ethical problems, large and small, on the spot, in the course of providing patient care. They also observed, however, that the resident bioethicist cautioned, when presented with one of their typical problems, that it would take him days or even weeks to reach a proper solution.

The U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall Collection contains 100 sculptures: two luminaries from each state. They include many familiar figures, such as Helen Keller, Johnny Cash, Ronald Reagan and Amelia Earhart. There are a few from the Colonial era, including founders such as Samuel Adams and George Washington. Some will also be represented in the Garden of American Heroes that the Trump administration plans to build. The monument will eventually have 250 statues, and the administration has proposed a list of names.

Led Zeppelin warned us about the perils of misunderstood communications in relationships. Failing to translate what we are trying to say or do so that someone else gets it is the root of so many problems. But translation is a fantastic find when it goes right. Here are some things I've learned about translating meaning from a lifetime of speaking numerous languages, practicing a wide array of martial arts, and communicating science.

Not a new issue Before getting into the research, I'm reminded of similar concerns raised about earlier technologies, beginning with Socrates, who worried that writing would erode our reliance on memory and make it possible to appear knowledgeable without truly understanding what we claim to know. As absurd as that may sound in 2026, in some sense, he was right. Written sources give us indirect knowledge of events we didn't witness ourselves and allow us to revisit information when we need to refresh our memory.

The fastest human in the world, according to the Ancient Greek legend, was the heroine Atalanta. Although she was a famous huntress who joined Jason and the Argonauts in the search for the golden fleece, she was most renowned for the one avenue in which she surpassed all other humans: her speed. While many boasted of how swift or fleet-footed they were, Atalanta outdid them all. No one possessed the capabilities to defeat her in a fair footrace.

One of Japan's most recognizable cultural practices - the Japanese tea ceremony, known as chanoyu, or chadō - is being reshaped by tourism, wellness culture and social media. Matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea that is used during the ceremony, has entered the global marketplace. Influencers post highly curated tearoom photos, wellness brands market matcha as a "superfood," and cafés worldwide present whisked green tea as a symbol of mindful living.

The word umwelt comes from biology, coined by ethologists studying animals in their natural habitats. It refers to the world as an organism can perceive it, based entirely on its sensory equipment. A bat's umwelt is built from echo. A dog's from scent. A tick's world is dominated by a single chemical cue that tells it when to drop from a branch onto a passing mammal.

A professional philosopher outside the academy walls can act as a popularizer (the goal here is to make philosophy more accessible to the general public), an applied ethicist (the major task is to offer an analysis of various specific moral issues that arise within a society), and a public intellectual (I limit this role to questions that have political connotation). Of course, there are overlaps between these roles and they certainly do not exhaust all possible forms of public engagement of a professional philosopher.

It is easy to be good in a good world. What is difficult is to be good in an evil world, where the egoism of others and the egoism built into the institutions of society attack us and threaten to annihilate us. Under such conditions, the only possible reaction would seem to be to oppose evil with evil, egoism with egoism, hate with hate; in short, to annihilate the aggressor with his own weapons.

We spend one-third of our lives asleep. This biological fact is something that, with time and technology, is less and less taken for granted. In many science fiction stories, the future of sleep is cozy and idyllic - an elevated state living within dream world. In others, sleep is more of an evolutionary shackle that gets in the way of productivity. The latter focuses on questions that haunt anyone who feels there are not enough hours in the day. What if we didn't have to sleep?

Two years ago, I started learning Japanese on Duolingo. At first, the daily accrual of vocabulary was fun. Every lesson earned me experience points a little reward that measured and reinforced my progress. But something odd happened. Over time, my focus shifted. As I climbed the weekly leaderboards, I found myself favouring lessons that offered the most points for the least effort.

Mamdani's campaign is unique and his success extraordinary in several respects: he went from polling at 1% to defeating his opponents by a landslide margin in just over one year; his campaign recruited over one hundred thousand volunteers, engaging first-time voters and immigrants typically overlooked or deliberately excluded from electoral politics; and his platform was centered on affordability-not only the most deeply felt issue for the vast majority of New Yorkers (and, increasingly, others around the country),

In this instalment from Avintes in Portugal, he captures a group of teenagers playing a game known as pau de sebo - which loosely translates as 'greasy pole' - in which, rather appropriately, participants attempt to climb a grease-coated wooden pole to claim prizes hanging from its peak. On this occasion, salted cod, a teddy bear and small guitars hang from a ring at the apex,

Are heroes real, or are they simply stories we tell ourselves? Either heroes are objectively real-brave people who perform extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice-or heroism is merely in our heads, a social construction shaped by culture, media, and wishful thinking. This debate shows up everywhere: in classrooms, in popular culture, and even among scholars who study heroism for a living.

When I was learning multiplication, my father showed me the "rule of 9." Multiply any number by 9, he said, and then add together the digits of the product, and you will always land on 9. 9 × 2 = 18 → 1 + 8 = 9 9 × 3 = 27 → 2 + 7 = 9 9 × 12 = 108 → 1 + 0 + 8 = 9 Every time, the addition came back to 9. It stimulated my curiosity.

In another, adapted from Theodore Parker, a 19th-century abolitionist preacher, Dr. King points to another aspect of his dream. King writes, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." The first quote points to individual behavior, the second toward social action. Dr. King didn't emphasize one approach over the other. For him, personal and social morality were of a piece. A good world is one that is both kind and just.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

Tis the season to occupy oneself in eating and drinking like there's no tomorrow, in the wonderful warmth of friends and family, remembering those who are no longer with us and locking eyes as we toast to the river of time and the year to come. Some will go to Mass, many to buy presents, and almost none of us will think for even a moment of that unknown land between this world and the next.

Regular mindfulness practice has been linked to many positive health benefits, including reduced stress and anxiety, better sleep and quicker healing after injury and illness. Mindfulness can help us to be present in a distracted world and to feel more at home in our bodies, and in our lives. There are many different types of meditation. Some mindfulness practices ask meditators simply to sit with whatever thoughts, sensations or emotions arise without immediately reacting to them.

As the year ends, the reflection impulse kicks in. We scroll through photos, scan our calendars, take stock. How was your year? The question seems simple enough. But watch what happens when you try to answer it. First come the flashes: a vacation, an argument, a project completed, a relationship ended. Images without order. Then comes the verdict: good year, bad year, somewhere in between. We move from scattered impressions to summary judgment, often skipping everything in between.

How did Rousseau's outlook work its way into Kant's moral philosophy? If for Rousseau, it is by following the "general will" that we can be said to be free; for Kant, it is by obeying those moral laws that we would will as universal laws. Moral laws that we would will as universal laws are given not by our individual will but by our rational will, which we have in common with all other rational beings.

They're all part of the new strain of Mormon mania sweeping American culture. When I asked "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Heather Gay about the phenomenon last week, she called it "undeniable and crazy." "I just think that the Mormon moment is because we're taking over, we're industrial, we're enterprising," Gay said. Two percent of the US population self-identifies as members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, but they've dominated our screens and conversations in 2025 like never before.

Every January, millions of people make resolutions. By February, most have abandoned them. The failure rate, depending on which study you cite, hovers around 80 percent. We know this. We've lived it. Yet each year we return to the same strategies: be more specific, start smaller, find an accountability partner, track your progress. These aren't bad suggestions. But they miss something fundamental about how psychological change actually works.

But the relationship ends badly for the human partner, who discovers that he was never the true beloved but merely a rung on a ladder. He was useful only for a time, destined from the outset to be discarded once the machine's ascent to something higher required it. This summary describes the plot of two films released within a year of each other: Alex Garland's Ex Machina (2014) and Spike Jonze's Her (2013).

Although there are always some philosophical assumptions behind this conclusion, it's an assumption that isn't contradicted by anything we've ever measured under any conditions: not with human senses, not with laboratory equipment, not with telescopes or observatories, not under the influence of nature alone nor with specific human intervention. Reality exists, and our scientific description of that reality came about precisely because those measurements, conducted anywhere or at any time, is consistent with that very description of reality itself.

A few weeks ago, I asked 10,000 people this question and got thousands of replies back. Some, of course, were funny: "A job," "Some money," and a "girlfriend." Some were predictably context-appropriate: "An unanswerable question," "Time to think," and "A deep conversation." Others were oddly mundane: "Socks," "A mug," or a "book." When Diego said "a comb," I think he was getting personal. (You can find the best of the rest over on Substack.)

When I look at the shrimp on the platter, I don't see odd food anymore but, rather, individuals. Creatures piled on a platter, their black eyes still visible, their segmented, armored bodies intact. It's also a contrast to how we usually consume meat-the animal processed, the individual disappearing. Not so in the case of these shrimps. But that's only part of the explanation for my change in attitude