The Mind-Body Question
Are we all material—tissues and veins—or is there some nonmaterial substance, some essence, that transcends the corporeal form?
Philosophy
A Word for Our Troubled Times
Too many people are living fragmented lives.
Michael Pollan Punctures the AI Bubble
His new book, about the mystery of consciousness, strengthens the case that technology will never truly replicate humans.
Words Without Consequence
What does it mean to have speech without a speaker?
How to Have a ‘Don’t-Know Mind’
My quest to understand consciousness took me to a cave in New Mexico and then deep into the cosmos.
Texas Sends Plato Back to His Cave
Even in ancient Greece, people worried about philosophy’s subversive effect on tender minds.
What Stephen Miller Gets Wrong About Human Nature
The Trump adviser’s assertions about the “real world” reflect a deep misunderstanding of Thomas Hobbes’s dog-eat-dog worldview.
A New Understanding of Human Beings’ Most Basic Desire
The philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s latest book looks beyond happiness as the goal of a well-lived life.
Why Authors Can’t Let Go of Greek Myths
The fascination with these stories reflects an existential interest in what in life is inevitable, and what we can control.
What Dante Is Trying to Tell Us
A colloquial translation of Paradiso might make people actually read it.