Comedy and the Culture Wars
July 3, 2022
Comedy can often give offense, especially when it concerns such sensitive topics as race, gender,…
What Is Game Theory?
August 16, 2026
Game theory is a set of mathematical techniques for thinking about how people should choose when their choices interact. But real people aren’t exactly rational actors. Can a mathematical model explain real-world decisions? How can game theorists account for the fact that we don’t always…
Leibniz
June 26, 2022
The intellectual domain of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz cannot be captured in a single word.…
The Changing Face of Antisemitism
June 19, 2022
Antisemitism is an old problem with roots that reach back to medieval Europe. While earlier…
Conscious Machines
June 5, 2022
Computers have already surpassed us in their ability to perform certain cognitive tasks. Perhaps it…
The Allure of Authoritarianism
May 22, 2022
In George Orwell’s 1984, the party’s “final, most essential command” was “to reject the evidence…
J.S. Mill and the Good Life
May 15, 2022
John Stuart Mill was one of the most important British philosophers of the 19th century.…
Sanctuary Cities
May 1, 2022
In the U.S. there are over 500 sanctuary cities—municipalities that limit their cooperation with the…
Explanation At Its Best
April 24, 2022
In science as well as everyday life, we often feel the pull of simpler, more…
The Doomsday Doctrine
April 3, 2022
The doctrine of mutually assured destruction is supposed to deter both sides in a war…
Reading the Troubled Past
March 13, 2022
Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe lambasted Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness as a deeply racist work that…
Is Postmodernism Really to Blame for Post-Truth?
February 27, 2022
Postmodernism is often characterized by its rejection of concepts championed by the Enlightenment, like meaning,…
Polyamory
February 13, 2022
In most if not all modern Western societies, monogamy is the dominant form of romantic…
Hacking the Brain: Beyond the Five Senses
January 23, 2022
Humans evolved to have a variety of senses—smell, sight, touch, etc.—that provide information about the…
The Art of Non-Violence
January 16, 2022
We all hope for peace. Yet in the face of violence, it often seems the…
The Examined Year: 2021
December 26, 2021
What happened over the past 12 months that challenged our assumptions and made us think…
The Limits of Tolerance
December 19, 2021
In order to reach compromise, people try to be tolerant of others with different beliefs.…
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