“Does knowledge have intrinsic value or is its value respective to how applicable it is?” Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for another corker of a question. Aristotle is famous for saying that we all naturally desire knowledge. But do we always want to know the truth? (Cue Mario Winans’ “I don’t Wanna Know”.) Imagine you had […]
Does knowledge have intrinsic value? Read More
Thank you, Ela Özcan, for a very important question. First, what is it for two people – any two people, regardless of their genders – to be friends? This is a slippery question, with many different answers. But among these answers seem to be three common threads. First, friends must care about each other for
Can men and women be just friends? Read More
Thanks, Kenth Hubert Badiang Francisco! This question is as old as philosophy itself, with the ancient Greeks being especially interested in it. For some, a good life is one in which we have some positive subjective state—like when we experience the fulfillment of some desire or other. For others, it is one in which we
What does it mean to live a good life? Read More
Thank you, Sajad Ali, for this interesting question. Aristotle famously believed that virtue is a mean between two extremes—for example, courage is a mean between recklessness and cowardice. Does this work for the desire for knowledge, too? In particular, can there be an excess of such a desire? There is no name for the virtue
Can the desire for knowledge be considered greedy? Read More
Thank you, TG Dee, for this perennial question. To understand why this seems to be the case, we have to understand what it is to be good or to be evil. It seems to me that to be good involves acting, desiring, feeling, in accordance with certain standards. For multiple reasons it is not easy
Why is evil consistent and the good is faltering? Read More
Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for this intriguing question. The more I reflect upon it, the more mysterious it is that people are made happy by the fulfillment of their interests. I don’t think I have a good explanation for this; all I can do is hazard a few hypotheses. I will understand “happy” to
What makes people happy when their interests are fulfilled? Read More
