Philosophers’ Corner

The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects our right to say and publish whatever we think, but doesn’t in general guarantee the right to do any more than that. I can believe that people shouldn’t wear fedoras, and I can publish my view. But I can’t go around knocking fedoras off the heads of those that wear them, and I may get in trouble if I fire employees for wearing fedoras. But it seems to go further with respect to religion. In addition to ruling out the establishment of a state religion, it also guarantees “the right to the free exercise of [religion].” You cannot only preach what you believe, you can practice what you preach. But just what does this mean? Do we really treat religion in a special way? Should we?

Happy Labor Day from your friendly neighboorhood producer. This weekend we present our first Election Special, a pre-produced…

In many countries around the world, people are living longer. At the same time birth rates are declining—sometimes rapidly. The result? More old people, fewer young people. Combine that with the world’s highest average life expectancy, and the result is a population that’s rapidly shrinking and rapidly aging. Now that’s dangerous demographics.

They say that the Big Bang gave birth to the entire universe. So you might think that the Big Bang must have been one hell of an explosion. But technically speaking, the Big Bang wasn’t actually an explosion at all. It couldn’t have been.

Music is an amazing thing. It can move us to its groove and or make us cringe. It can lift us up or bring us down. But exactly how does music work its magic on the mind? What separates good music from bad? And why do different people react so differently to the very same music?

We’ve all experienced the desire for revenge, whether it be when some jerk cuts you…

Like most words for powerful ideas, “democracy,” is a bit ambiguous, a bit blurry around the edges; the word itself is a contested item in our democracy and others.  It would help if we have a preliminary definition.   I like Lincoln’s.  “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  But now we have to ask what that means.  Here’s my take on it.

There’s a long tradition in philosophy of thinking that we actually know ourselves quite well. Descartes, who has a reasonable claim to be the founder of this tradition, apparently thought that we had infallible and complete knowledge of everything going on in our minds. And he is certainly not the only philosopher to think that.

“Live your life as a work of art!” Thus rings the slogan discussed by John,…

Is philanthropy an unalloyed good? Or does philanthropy have its downsides too? If you’re wondering what could be wrong with individuals voluntarily giving to charitable causes that serve the public good, let me just narrow the scope of my criticism to giving from the ultra wealthy—fat cats like Bill Gates or John D. Rockerfeller, who set up these huge foundations worth billions of dollars.

This week we’re staying up and thinking about Sleep. We spend so much of our lives asleep, but we philosophers have had very little to say about it. Maybe that’s becayse Philosophy is mostly about things we’re conscious of — our experiences, our choices, our beliefs. We’re mostly NOT conscious when we sleep, so you might wonder who cares, really.

From The Committee of Sleep by Deirdre Barrett Psychologists have developed incubation rituals to encourage…