Philosophy

Simulation Theory—at first blush, it sounds like a cute plot device from some entertaining but predictable sci-fi film. However, many people, including some credible thinkers, take the idea that we are actually living in a simulated reality seriously. Various sorts of evidence for this notion have been proposed, including in a video on the YouTube channel The Why Files that More »

I spent five years ensconced in a yeshiva directly opposite the Western Wall in the late '90s. It was a high-traffic area, and it was not uncommon for tourists and visitors to pop in and take in the incredible view from our balcony. Periodically, this led to philosophical discourse between the yeshiva folk and our sundry visitors. Once in a More »

The foot is a masterpiece of engineering. Leonardo Da Vinci The Strength of Feet I have spent precious little time contemplating my feet. I’m flatfooted so I don’t love walking around without shoes, and I rub them from time to time when they get sore, but besides that, they’re very low on my daily list of priorities. Like many things More »

The Skeptic vs. The Believer Dr. Ed Feser has a fun analogy on his blog in the form of a "skeptic" and a "believer" arguing over the existence of the "Painter" of a Where's Waldo scene. The skeptic says: "Painter? Oh please, there's no evidence of any painter! I've been studying this canvas for years. I've gone over every square More »

"In the still, dark world in which I lived, there was no strong sentiment or tenderness," remarked Helen Keller in the years before what she would subsequently describe as her "soul's sudden awakening." Around age five, she became aware that she could not communicate in the same manner as other people. Her need for connection and communication became so acute More »

Some Fables of the Talmud Some people believe that along with whatever kernels of wisdom the Talmud (and other Jewish scriptures) may contain is a whole mess of silly old folklore and superstition. On the surface, this assumption is not without merit, for the Talmudic Sages apparently believed things like: "For a fever that strikes daily, one must take a More »

Love is a funny thing. Even though most people view it as one of the most important aspects of their lives, they have a tough time defining it. Poets and painters have labored to capture and express its essence through their arts. Scientists and sociologists have probed it, endeavoring to explain its origin and purpose - all with questionable results. More »

Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away. Pema Chodron I was strolling through a Michael's art supply store a few weeks ago with my daughter. I hadn't been feeling all that great and had noticed a fluttering sensation on the left side of my chest earlier More »

Don’t trust your eyes; they can deceive you. - Obi Wan Kanobi Many aspects of reality cannot be grasped directly through the senses. One can search high and low and never come to “see” love or justice or meaning, for instance. One approach to this problem is to say that whatever cannot be measured through the senses or by instruments More »

I recently had the pleasure of watching “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” an excellent documentary about a show that I loved as a kid called “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.” The show had an amazing run from 1968-2001 and, with a totally counterintuitive style, captured the hearts and minds of millions of children. Its host, Fred Rogers, was a couldn’t-be-more-regular guy from More »

This week the world continued its undying fascination with outer space. As the first images came in from the James Webb telescope (named after the man who ran NASA from 1961-1968) many were moved by the beautiful and remarkably sharp and colorful images of our visible universe. Many more marveled at the fact that these images are, counterintuitively, very ancient More »

Amazingly, 80’s British pop star Kate Bush scored a #1 hit on the British charts last week - off a song that came out 37 years ago! She now holds the records both for taking the longest time getting to #1 and for being the oldest woman (63) to have a #1 hit. The springboard for this unlikely occurrence was More »

Here is some standard materialist thinking about emotionality. In a nutshell: Physical existence is the only kind of existence People experience emotions, therefore Emotions have a physical cause For many years we have been hearing about the causal link between the experience of love and a chemical called Oxytocin. The story went something like this: People have genes Genes have More »