In light of a new tussle between Google and the Chinese government, it’s an interesting time to consider the role of the internet in political mobilization, particularly in countries where […]

Why do we act irrationally? Does free will exist? These are the questions that philosopher Alfred Mele sought to answer when he sat down with Big Think.The Florida State University […]

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, came by Big Think today to share his unconventional wisdom about highly intelligent people and their preferences. Liberals, he […]

Should abortion be permitted until the fetus’s birth? Bioethicist Jacob Appel believes so, arguing that any other guideline is too arbitrary to be legally justifiable, or enforceable. Indeed, his actual “philosophical […]

Monday the 22nd, World Water Day, marked the launch of World Water Week 2010 – not a bad time to check in on the liquid state of things here on […]

“This being so afraid about competitiveness, I have never understood. Even as a Prime Minister, unless you have products or services to sell to others outside your own country, then […]

Skeptics of global warming present the same issue as tobacco companies who misbehaved, lied to Congress and undermined public health efforts.

Wealthy countries have to pay for part of their debt to the planet by helping developing countries have a chance for sustainability.

Becoming a New York sightseeing guide is harder than passing the bar. Having met the challenge, Jacob Appel describes his favorite sight in the city.

Don’t write stories about “ordinary people who think in ordinary ways,” and don’t spoon-feed your readers answers to moral dilemmas.

Discouraged writers, take heart! Jacob Appel has been turned down by nearly every publication in existence—and has the records to prove it. So what keeps him plugging away?

“A pharmacist in Alaska can look at the records of his daughter’s fiancée in Florida…and there’s no way the system right now can track that down.” What’s the solution?

In vitro babies should be pre-screened for severe birth defects, argues Jacob Appel. If this creates a slippery slope, parents can find “level places on it” (and maybe save money […]

The bioethicist believes it’s an idea whose time has come. But how could such a market be regulated to prevent abuses?

The bioethicist argues that humans do not gain real sentience until infancy, and that even mothers who commit infanticide should be treated far more gently than other murderers.

Is euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide, ever justified? And when do vegetative states become inseparable from death?

How bioethicists can steer clear of political tensions on the job, and why past friction between bioethicists and doctors is quickly disappearing.

The discipline is less than 30 years old, but its practitioners have become a fixture in hospitals, and its inquiries have “brought morality back into the field of philosophy.”

A conversation with the bioethicist and fiction writer.

Why the two disciplines are intersecting now more than ever.