The concept of nothingness has confounded philosophers, scientists, and mystics from the start of time. Nothingness seems like a simple concept at first, it is that which doesn't exist, the void, the non-being. But if you examine it closely, the concept collapses in...
Truth is perhaps the oldest and most abiding issue of philosophy. From the pre-Socratic skepticism of earliest times to the analytic acumen of contemporary philosophy, the question of what truth is, and whether it is anything at all apart from a human construction,...
Dreams have always vexed man because they remove the line between reality and fantasy, between will and necessity. In life, morality is entwined with responsibility: we are held responsible on the basis of decisions that we knowingly take, of intentions before our...
Boredom is a condition that almost all human beings experience, but one which is most regularly considered useless or infuriating. A distracted gazing at the clock, an occasional yawning in a mundane classroom, or aimless surfing of a phone news stream, these are...
Silence is something we are all familiar with, but it is also very enigmatic. When a person remains quiet, is something communicated or nothing at all? Scholars, linguists, and psychologists have debated this for centuries as to whether silence is communication,...
The dream of immortality has fascinated human fancy for millennia. From ancient fable and legend of gods and mythic heroes to modern speculation regarding biotechnology and computer intelligence, the dream of immortality raises fundamental questions on ethics,...
Consciousness is the greatest mystery of life. To be self-knowing, to think, to question, to invent, seems both miraculous and burdensome. Human beings, uniquely among animals, are able to withdraw themselves from the immanence of existence and introspect upon their...
Perfection is the bane of the human psyche. It appears in art, mathematics, ethics, and even in life as a goal. We desire to render beauty flawless, knowledge exhaustive, morality untainted, or life unblemished. But the perfection chaser bears with it an irony: the...
Time is the most tolerated aspect of life. We measure it in clocks, calendars, and schedules, dividing our days down to the relentless tick-tock of seconds, minutes, and hours. But when scientists and philosophers examine more carefully, time as a more elusive and...