Philosophy

Philosophy

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

A frayed rope descends from above and is attached to the top of a blue Earth, symbolizing fragility or tension.
A paradigm should be elastic enough to accommodate new data and broad enough to explain the world. For Rupert Sheldrake, ours does neither.
Large crowd of well-dressed people socializing at an indoor event; "Substack" is projected on a wall above.
The platform is a digital Royal Society for today's greatest minds — and it could play an essential role in shaping the next civilization.
Image split in half: left side shows a woolly mammoth in a natural landscape; right side shows an illustrated mammoth skeleton on a yellow background.
Dreams of resurrecting lost species didn’t start in Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
entanglement across space
If all massive objects emit Hawking radiation, not just black holes alone, then everything is unstable, even the Universe. Can that be true?
A man with short dark hair, glasses, and a goatee, wearing a blue jacket over a light shirt, stands in front of a beige, textured background.
The "Doctor Strange" director says mystery shifts your worldview — "not in a metaphorical sense, but in a deeply experiential one."
An old black and white photo showing a man smoking a cigarette.
If you feel like you're missing out on something bigger, you might be feeling saṃvega.
A person sits on a chair with hands clasped, facing forward. Blue waveforms and dots form a digital backdrop behind them.
1hr 19mins
“We don't have enough knowledge to precisely calculate what is going to happen, and so we assign probabilities to it, which reflects our ignorance of the situation.”
A man sits with his head resting on his hand, surrounded by crossed-out words like "nonsense," "babble," and "rubbish" in red text.
A thesaurus isn’t for finding fancy words; it’s a resource to help you keep your rhythm.
Silhouette of a person with a backpack looking at a phone or book, filled with a galaxy pattern, on a light, swirling background.
In the tears and laughter of a single life, you find the grief and joy of humanity.
A digital illustration of a brain, composed of circuit-like lines, appears against a black background filled with white dots resembling stars.
"Nobody expects a computer simulation of a hurricane to generate real wind and real rain," writes neuroscientist Anil Seth.
Abstract illustration of a figure reaching for a yellow sphere on the left, with colored overlapping circles and concentric arcs—evoking themes of physics and consciousness—set against a vibrant multicolored gradient background.
Many, from neuroscientists to philosophers to anesthesiologists, have claimed to understand consciousness. Do physicists? Does anyone?
David Perell, in a short-sleeve white shirt, sits in front of a blurred background with plants, looking slightly to the side.
You no longer need an army of followers to stand out as a writer — “one great piece is all it takes,” says Perell.
A man with a beard and short hair smiles at the camera; the background features abstract green, purple, and black-and-white graphic patterns—capturing a confident presence that suggests he may share valuable leadership advice.
The cofounder and CEO of red-hot billing platform Metronome unpacks his leadership journey.
tolkien fantasy
According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as "sub-creation." And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.
An older man sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop, surrounded by rows of hanging beef carcasses in a meat processing facility.
1hr 55mins
“It’s not about being perfect. It’s about reducing suffering where we can, and right now, we’re choosing not to.”
dark energy accelerated expansion
The fact that our Universe's expansion is accelerating implies that dark energy exists. But could it be even weirder than we've imagined?
Book cover of "The Never Ending Empire" by Aldo Cazzullo, featuring gold text on a red background with an eagle, SPQR emblem, and nods to the Roman Empire’s influence on British culture. Subtext: The Infinite Impact of Ancient Rome.
From medieval myths to Shakespeare's plays and modern cinema, British culture kept the Roman Empire alive long after its fall.
A graphic featuring the text "The Nightcrawler," a black-and-white photo of a lighthouse amid waves that outlast the storm, and a green-tinted portrait of a man.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Aerial view of winding rivers and wetlands showcases lush green vegetation and tan sediment-laden water converging with a larger body of water.
The award-winning nature writer, Robert Macfarlane, talks with Big Think about how to reacquaint ourselves with the rivers in our lives.
Map showing a pink route line from Lagos, Nigeria to Singapore, crossing Europe and Asia. Lagos and Singapore are labeled with bold text and marked with colored dots.
Can you travel by rail from Portugal all the way to Singapore? In theory, yes. In practice? Not so much.