Philosophy

Philosophy

Examine life’s biggest questions, from ethics to existence, with curiosity and critical thinking.

A gifted young boy reading a book.
The National Defense Education Act of 1958 meshed with white anxiety about the desegregation of schools.
A statue of a woman with a red blindfold on her head, symbolizing the human experience in the realm of science.
Here's the case for why science can't keep ignoring human experience.
An illustration depicting the reality of leadership through a woman with long blonde hair.
Alli Webb, co-founder of Drybar, has a message for up-and-coming leaders: Embrace the mess!
A blue and white drawing of a person wrapped in a tape illustrating genetic determinism.
Genes are sometimes called the “blueprint of life,” but that doesn't make them the behavioral playbook.
An image of blue glow in the dark, signifying life.
In a recent paper, biologists outlined a three-part hypothesis for how all life as we know it began.
Illustration of a vampire bat with outstretched wings.
At work we're often asked to be decisive — but how can we make an informed choice without complete information?
inflation spawn parallel universes
When cosmic inflation came to an end, the hot Big Bang ensued as a result. If our cosmic vacuum state decays, could it all happen again?
A painting of a group of boats in a body of water.
Big Think spoke with historian Marc-William Palen about the egalitarian aims of the free-trade movement in past centuries.
A man in a suit is holding a pipe, presenting an air of sophistication.
Bertrand Russell shows us how to recognize emotional arguments smuggled into presumed statements of fact.
Two people holding a green star.
Esperanto was intended to be an easy-to-learn second language that enabled you to speak with anyone on the planet.
An illustration of a woman's head with lines drawn on it.
To hallucinate means you must first perceive.
Planets in varying sizes orbiting around a bright central star in a purple-hued cosmos, where life persists.
There are plenty of life-friendly stellar systems in the Universe today. But at some point in the far future, life's final extinction will occur.
A blue t-shirt with a yellow circle and arrow, representing the universe.
The second law of thermodynamics tells us that entropy always increases. But that doesn't mean it was zero at the start of the Big Bang.
A hand holding a light bulb with a thumbs down, symbolizing a rejection of new ideas.
What Shark Tank pitches, Sundance films, and unusual sandwiches show us about our choices.
A close up of a red blood cell containing stem cells.
Long overlooked, menstrual stem cells could have important medical applications, including diagnosing endometriosis
A man displaying conatus while running in the air.
We were not born to stagnate — the point of life (and work) is to go somewhere.
An image of a pop-culture city with a woman in the sky, representing future visions.
Do grim sci-fi scenarios crush our hopes for real-world growth? Author Michael Harris looks elsewhere to unblock the road to a better future.
Two men in suspenders standing next to each other in an office, possibly enduring the presence of a bad boss.
We can’t always change our horrible bosses — but we can transform the ways we interact with them.
An image of the earth with a mountain in the background, showcasing terraforming potential.
Whenever someone waxes poetic about terraforming alien worlds, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the ethical implications of the proposal.