The study of the unique characteristics of human beings.
Thank you, Ela Özcan, for such a tough question! I’ll do my best to break it down and give you the best answer I can. Online misinformation is a pretty hot topic: it intoxicates political debate, radicalizes people with different opinions against each other, and distracts them from what is actually going on in the world. […]
Thank you, Max Palmer, for a great question! There is a famous nightmare that was had by one of Freud’s patients and that was subsequently interpreted by a French psychoanalyst, Lacan, and more recently by the popular Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek. The patient had this nightmare after falling asleep beside the coffin of his little
We have nightmares. Can we have daymares? Read More
Thank you, Elle Flinn-Shephard, for such a dilemma! This question touches many important ethical issues. It looks a lot like the famous trolley problem: Imagine that you are the driver of a runaway train. Up ahead you see 5 people tied to the track. If you do nothing, the train will kill them all. But
Thank you, Jesal Panchal, for such an important question! As humans we always tend to look at the things that surround us as if they are humans too. As humans, we often (consciously or not) hurt one another, but can objects, on their own, hurt us too? A glass of wine never hurt anyone, right?
Why do the things we love – wine, for instance – hurt us the most? Read More
Thank you, James Cleaver, for a killer question! The simple answer is that they do both: guns protect people and guns kill people; or perhaps it is more accurate to say that guns are used to protect people and guns are used to kill people. The more interesting cases arise when the two coincide, that
Do guns protect people or kill people? Read More
Thank you, Ramón Mansilla, for a great question! Let’s hope ignorance isn’t bliss, because here comes some knowledge… If someone were to call you ‘ignorant’, then you would usually take it as an insult – that is, if we regard ourselves rational agents who are epistemically responsible and see ignorance as a bad thing. By
Is ignorance really bliss? Read More
Thank you, Angus Nimmo, for a great question! I only hope that your assumption that we can provide an answer is well founded… An assumption can be offensive precisely because it is an assumption. If you assume something about someone, it’s because you do not know whether what you are assuming is correct. Though your
Are assumptions offensive if they are correct? Read More
Thank you, Javier Palau Salsas, for such a selfless question! I don’t think there are strong reasons to believe that this is true. It seems plausible that our ego can help us get things done, but it seems equally plausible that our ego can stop us from getting things done. I’ll explain a bit more
Does a lack of ego make us lazy? Read More
Thank you, Joey Daly, for such an emotive question! Whenever wondering whether something is possible, a good place to start is with experience; for if it has ever manifested in experience, then of course it must be possible. When wondering whether animals can be cruel, then, we may start by asking: Has an animal ever
Can animals be cruel? Read More
Thank you, Dave Groves, for such a topical question! Yes, it is okay; don’t worry about it, enjoy your isolation in peace – that’s the short answer. Here is the long answer: It is important to recognise, first, that a great deal of happiness is built on the suffering of others. Were it not for
Is it okay to be happy in lockdown given that it is caused by a pandemic? Read More
