There’s something odd about how psychiatry defines mental disorders—namely, by their symptoms. It’s to be expected, on some level. After all, how else could doctors diagnose psychiatric disorders, if not, in part, by their symptoms? The problem, though, is that in medicine, a cluster of symptoms isn’t usually what defines the disorder. Illnesses are identified by the underlying condition that causes the symptoms. And for good reason.
David Shepherd Nivison, emeritus professor of philosophy, religious studies, and Chinese language at Stanford University,…
One of the many people who is considerably smarter and more productive than I am…
Suppose we know what all the goods are. It doesn’t matter whether we are hedonists…
Recently, at a conference in Las Vegas, I was looking out my 29th floor window…
What would be the point of living if you thought that life was absurd, that it could never have meaning? This is precisely the question that Camus asks in his famous work, The Myth of Sisyphus. He says, “There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” He was haunted by this question of whether suicide could be the only rational response to the absurdity of life.
Our topic this week is the evolution of storytelling, which brings to mind two…
This week, we’re asking about Cyber-Activism — social or political activism mediated and enabled by…
Something has puzzled me for a long time about the psychology of those who deny…
Our topic this week is Regulating Bodies. My first gut instinct is to say…
An astounding one in eight people on the planet are undernourished, over three million children…
Most philosophical work on race concentrates on two questions. The first is the question of…
Before we can say whether an anarchist future is possible, we should start by saying…
Having just listened to the recent Philosophy Talk show with David Livingstone Smith, I find…
Why Be Moral – what kind of question is that? Morality is a good thing. Immorality is a bad thing. A person should always do good things and never do bad things. Doesn’t everybody agree? Well, judging by people’s behavior, not necessarily. But we also have to be careful not confuse ‘ought’ and ‘is’. People do behave immorally. But they shouldn’t. Everybody knows that – at least in their heart of hearts.
What’s Next? After death, that is. Here’s one answer: nothingness. How can I be so sure there’s no afterlife? After all, people have believed in the afterlife, since … well, since there were people. Who’m I to say they’re wrong?