We all belong to some sort of ingroup and outgroup, but what are ingroups and outgroups exactly? Lets explain the main features of ingroups and outgroups.
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Solomon Asch and Conformity in our Lives
We are all conformists. We think we aren’t, but we are. To prove that point, lets discuss conformity in our lives.
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How To Read A Boring Book
Boring books are hard to read. So when someone has advice on how to read them, I am all ears.
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Should I Be Self-Centred?
Should I be self-centred? Is it okay to be self-centred? We are told putting others first is noble. But is that true?
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Friendship and Values
Are all values equal? can I be friends with someone who has different values than me? And what should I do when my friend has values different than mine?
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Asymmetries in Reading and Writing
Reading and writing come with unevenly distributed tasks. Some duties fall onto the writer, and other duties fall onto the reader. As a result, books are filled with asymmetry.
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Creativity is Fickle
Creativity is weird thing. It is whimsical, fickle and borderline ineffable. Creativity has a mind of its own.
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Why Nihilism is OK
Nihilism gets a bad reputation in public life. There is a ugly stereotype of nihilism that just isn’t true. Nihilism is ok, and here is why.
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My Friend Has No Morals
What are we to do when our friends have no morals? How should we respond? Well, we have two options, stay or leave. Lets see which is best for you.
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How To Make Ethics Confusing
Ethics is a confusing topic, but it is made even more confusing when people who do ethics misunderstand their own positions on epistemology and truth.
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On Discontent
Dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances, that is what discontent is. But what should we think of that? Is discontent good or bad?
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Fetishization of Reading
Reading will neither increase your intelligence nor bestow ability of genius onto you. Be warned, some among us seek to fetishize reading to something more than what it actually is.
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On The Perfection of Atlas
Atlas is the physical embodiment of perfection. He encompasses the ideal traits of humanity and reveals to us their appearance in ordinary form. We have much to learn from Atlas
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Why Selfishness is OK
Altruists are liars and unaware. Altruists are dishonest, deceitful, and manipulative. And egoists are honest, upfront, and self-aware. Despite the common narrative saying otherwise, we are all selfish, and that is ok.
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Why You Should Not Help Others
We should not help others, at least in some cases. Despite popular belief, helping other can be the wrong thing to do.
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Why Solipsism is OK
Solipsism is justifiable, but why? Are there any good reasons to deny solipsism? I think solipsism is ok, here is why.
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Why Is Philosophy Hard?
Why is philosophy so hard? The three primary reasons, I believe, are intangibility, universal scope, and universal application.
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4 Reasons Why Philosophy Is Important
Philosophy is important for many reasons, but here are 4 reasons why philosophy is important.
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Why You Should Live Rationally
Among the many challenges of philosophy, there are two of utmost importance: what is a rational life, and why should you live a rational life?
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The Reach of Realism In Knowledge
Realism is spoken of at length in philosophy, but realism goes well beyond philosophy. Realism can be found in just about every branch of knowledge, and here’s why.
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How Sacred Cows Ruin Our Lives
That which is sacred is immune from critique. So, what happens when we treat parts of our lives as sacred? What happens when we become sacred cows?
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On Being Open
Being open has a challenge unique only to being open. And failure can mean the difference between a terrible or good life. But what is this challenge?
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What is Theory-ladenness?
Are all observations influenced by theory? Can beliefs be formed without bias? Is perception laden with theory? These are the questions which relate to the problem of theory-ladenness. And I believe we cannot answer any of them with epistemic certainty.
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Self-Reliance & Unease
We have a choice to be either internally or externally focused in our personhood. And although it is true that many choose to be externally focused, because we reward social conformity, there many reasons to be internally focused, nonetheless; we just have to be willing to tolerate the unease.
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What Is A Lie?
What is a lie? Do all lies require an intentional element? How do we distinguish deception and omission from a lie? these questions, as simple as they are, don’t have simple answers. So, lets see what philosophers have to say about lies.
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Moral People Have Less Friends
Moral people have less friends, for a few reasons, of which are mentioned in this essay.
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On Legal Precedent
An introduction to precedent that discusses horizontal and vertical precedent; persuasive and binding precedent; and the arguments for and against precedent.
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How To Change Who You Are
When it comes to changing who we are as people, one of the most interesting ways to do so is through acting. Who knows the nature of character change better than actors?
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A Doctrine Of Self-Esteem
A lot of people have flawed methods to derive their self-esteem. As such, I herein propose a better method to derive one’s esteem.
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Why We Buy
Why We Buy is a consumer psychology book, written by Paco Underhill, a consultant, who utilizes consumer psychology to increase retail store sales. How does he do it?
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3 Reasons Why Self-Awareness Is Important
3 reasons why self-awareness is important.
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Why People Change
People change, but why? The answer to why people change comes in many forms, and is often dependent on highly specific circumstances. here are just a few reasons as to why people change.
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Is Social Media Cancerous?
Social Media has received a lot of hate. People have said it ruins social life, it interferes with politics, and harms the mental health of our children. And therefore, social media is cancerous. But is that really so?
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Delusions: Examples, Definitions, and Theories.
What are delusions? The definition of delusions is that they are idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are firmly maintained despite evidence. But the definition of delusions seems to not fit the examples of delusions. So, what are delusions to psychologists and psychiatrists?
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Neuroscience And The Law: Why Smarter People Are More Responsible.
How can neuroscience the law? One way is to help determine levels of culpability by assessing the kind of brain functioning someone has. But, how are we to do that?
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What Is Political Psychology
Political psychology has become a popular field recently, due to Jordan Peterson. But there is more than personality research going on within the field. Lets talk about what political psychology is.
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Why You Don’t Understand Science
People who argue that philosophy and science are different simply don’t understand science. There are two good arguments for why philosophy and science are the same. One comes from cognition and the other from method; I discuss them herein.
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Humans Are Ungrateful
Humans are ungrateful. Seldom do our sacrifices for others get recognized. We give all the help in the world to others, all so it may go unnoticed. Humans are indeed ungrateful.
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Will Asceticism Save You?
How should we live life? For asceticism, the answer is simple. But to see how, we have to discuss: what asceticism is and the reasons to be ascetic, as well as the confusions about hedonism and asceticism. All that and more is discussed herein.
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Celebrities Are Not People
Celebrities are not people. The idea of a celebrity refers to something entirely non-human. Celebrities are synthetic personalities created by marketers, lawyers, and public relations specialists. Celebrities are not people, far from it.
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Social Norms and Social Policy
When dealing with social policy, we have to adopt some theoretical viewpoint. That is, we are either social constructionists or evolutionary theorists. But how do we decipher which one is correct? We do so with political centrism
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Humans Are Distinct
Humans come in a uniform body, society, and culture. Everything is similar enough to be identified as non-distinct. Yet, when we look closer at the individual differences, we can see that each human is indeed distinct. We’re all a bit different.
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INFINITE REGRESS
An infinite regress is something used to negate or construct different arguments. Philosophers like Hume, Aquinas, and Aristotle have al used infinite regress arguments to justify things in morality or negate inferential knowledge. So what are they?
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Why Take Life Seriously?
Why take life seriously? Despite common beliefs, the answer is not obvious. Do we really have a good reason to take life seriously? And if so, are there any good reasons to not take life seriously? Lets think this through
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Elon Musk: He Drives Manual
As humans, we have a tendency to follow cultural autopilots, even when they are detrimental to our well-being. That’s not a fruitful habit. And we can learn how to stop doing so by looking those who don’t do so: Elon Musk. We can learn to drive manual.
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Humans Are Conversational
Humans delight in discourse; we derive immense pleasure from the particular sounds of others. As each word reverberates through our eardrums, a sense of familiarity and security sweeps broadly overtop our being. Like a young child who frolics merrily through fields of blossomed daisies, conversation is a means by which we obviate the vicissitudes of life and indulge our inner sense of play.
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What Is The Münchhausen Trilemma?
The Münchhausen trilemma is a problem in the branch of philosophy known as epistemology; the Münchhausen trilemma, also known as Agrippa’s trilemma, reveals that any theory of knowledge cannot be certain and that all beliefs are unjustified. In other words, justified beliefs, which are beliefs founded on reason and logic, cannot be obtained, as the Münchhausen trilemma demonstrates the impossibility of justified premises.
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Steve Jobs: The Character Of An Artist
Some chairs have three legs rather than four. Some vehicles have two wheels rather than four. And some humans traits are artsy rather than social. But, as with the three legged chair or two wheeled vehicle, artsy traits are uncommon, and that makes Steve Jobs all the more interesting.
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Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
Beauty, the a marvel to ponder and a sight to see; beauty can be found in nearly everything. From mathematical formalisms to poetry of all sorts, beauty resides in multiple forms. But of the vastness of it all, beauty can be boiled down into two broad categories, of which I shall expound upon.
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Humans Are Terminally Sick
Humans have a terminal illness that plagues them throughout their lifespan. It plagues them in their social life, robbing them from friends; it plagues them in their private lives, robbing them from memories; and it plagues them from a decent living, as it likewise robs them from health. What is this terminal illness?
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3 Reasons Why Kanye West Gives Me Anxiety
Kanye West is a modern day celebrity who causes me great anxiety. He causes me anxiety for three reasons: he has incoherent beliefs, he has delusions of grandeur, and he’s socially unaware. These cause me anxiety because we all have them, even if we are unwilling to admit it. And so, Kanye is a walking billboard that obsessively reminds me about the shortcomings of not only my self but also humanity.
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Humans Are Change
Life is cyclic. Our daily routines and habits are circular; we repeat each throughout the days of the week, the weeks of the year, and the years of our life. But does life change? Yes. Life changes, and there are 3 ways how people respond to change. We can resist, ignore, or participate in the changes of life. Which we choose is up to us, but life indeed changes; and so, choose we must.
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Humans Are Ugly
Humans are ugly; both men and women are ugly. We can know that humans are ugly, all without asking the question: am I ugly? The reason why humans are ugly is because our value systems have clear contradictions within them. That is, evolutionary standards of beauty and higher-order standards of beauty conflict with one another, a conflict which leads can lead us to conclude humans are ugly.
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Beyoncé Noels: Will She Die?
Will Beyoncé Noels die? The question cannot be answered as straightforwardly as one thinks, as modern transhumanist movements seem to think digital immortality will become a viable option in the near future when it comes anti-aging. Indeed, it seems she might very well become immortal, as she has become digitally distributed across the entire planet. So, will she die?
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Kim Kardashian Is Ugly
Kim Kardashian is ugly, and so is Kant. Yet, both have perfected two distinct forms of human beauty: namely, external and internal beauty. Herein, I explained the distinction between external and internal beauty, and how they relate to Kim Kardashian and Kant. Then and only then can we see how ugly and beautiful the two of them really are.
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On Anxiety
Anxiety can be understood from numerous perspectives, but some of such perspectives fail to adequately characterize the experience of anxiousness its self. As such, I herein offer a literary analysis of anxiety, so that some may more thoroughly understand its nature.
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Your Masochistic Tendencies
To be alive is to not only want fulfillment but is likewise to want pain. We lovers of life are lovers of pain as much as we are lovers of joy; we have a sickness. We willingly subject ourselves to periods of anxiety and pain, those dreadful low points of our lives, all so that we may experience the euphoric high of happiness. We are drug addicts.
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Read This, Because You Don’t Understand What A Fact Is
You don’t understand facts. In the west, we seem to think facts and values are distinct, but that is simply wrong. Here’s why.
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What Kind Of Lover Are You?
We all want love in life; to be yearned after, to feel welcomed, to be the opposite of rejected. But few of us know what love even looks like, yet alone what kind of love we so yearn for. So what be love?
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What Is Sadism: An Essay On Sadism
We all behave some way or another in our lives, whether it be healthy or otherwise. But seldom ever reflect on these behaviours, which is unfortunate as our behaviours say a lot about our values. Though many don’t, we shall. That is, in this essay, we shall reflect upon the behaviours and values of sadists, and examine how their values relate to their behaviours. Read on to learn more about sadism.
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On Being Mature
Life can be many things. But the thing which it be depends on the approach we take towards it. A confident person will take more risks and be more domineering over life, whereas the passive person will be more tranquil and consuming of life. There are also various combinations found in between. But what of a life wherein which we adopt a mature attitude towards being, what would that look like?
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Proper Names
Proper names have been hotly debated within the philosophy of language and linguistics. People, in their attempts to account for what proper names are, have constructed numerous theories; in fact, this debate can go all the way back to Mill’s theory of names. Within the modern times, there are two theories, namely, the descriptivist and causal chain theory. In this article, I discuss each theory. As well, I discuss John Searle’s critique of those theories, provide my own critique, and offer a new approach for the problem of proper names.
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Mental Vault
A short essay on the necessity of making one’s self vulnerable in order to have a healthy, rich, and lasting relationship.
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Moral Luck and Legal Responsibility
Moral luck: when an agent partakes in, regardless of a positive or negative outcome, some some action or is involved in some event that occurred by mere chance or circumstance. In example, when a child is struck by a car because a driver was distracted by some rare event that unfolded on the radio, the driver is said to be morally unlucky. In such an example of moral luck, both ethicists and legal scholars have to think carefully about moral luck and the role it plays in legal responsibility and moral culpability. So how do they do it?
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Your Social Life
The future of human social life is going to have more and more social media based interactions. Therefore, we need to develop a philosophy of social media. I attempt to develop such a framework here.
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How Laws Benefit Society
How do laws benefit society? What are the advantages of law? These questions, though often taken for granted in public discourse, require some explanation. Why do we have laws?
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3 Reasons Why Laws Are Important
Why are laws so important, anyways? Read why these 3 reasons demonstrate the importance of law, to the point where a lawless society seems incoherent.
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Soccer: The Philosophy Of
What does philosophy tell us about soccer? Soccer is a sport which involves intentional action, collective intentionality, and culturally bound frames. With these ideas, we can create the philosophy of soccer.
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3 Ways To Interpret Law: How Law is Interpreted
Laws are not objective, but they’re also not arbitrary. I provide an in-depth analysis of how to interpret laws, and the problems faced when doing legal interpretation.
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Introduction to Legislation
A detailed, easy-to-read, and short summary of how the legislative branch is structured, what the purpose of legislation is, and how legislation is created.
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The Different Types of Courts
The U.S. Judicial system is quite complex and full of nuance. There are distinctions between trial and appellate courts, and there are also distinctions between federal and state judiciaries. Learn those differences.
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The Purpose of Judicial Law
A short-overview of the functions and purpose of judicial law, and how the judiciary serves society.
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Musicians Hallucinate Less: Implications for Schizophrenia
Recent research in neurophysiology and cognition entail major implications for schizophrenia treatment. Music might lead to less hallucinations and more white matter.
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Philosophy of Error: Notes on Kant
The Philosophy of error, as Kant views it, is wrong. He presents an oversimplified view of natural things, which leads to his error.
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The Theory of Descriptions
In the philosophy of language and linguistics, there is a theory of description which is naive at best. Here are the criticisms of the theory of description.
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Trauma: How it Shows
A warrior knows of his actions and why he commits them, and he is also able to see his wounds and blood. But a trauma victim neither knows their motivations nor their wounds: they are blind to the scars visible to others.
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Normative Philosophy: is it acceptable?
Normative Philosophy: is it acceptable? Some think not; however, I argue otherwise in this post.
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Your World is on Fire
We often conflate, in an ever so solipsistic fashion, our own view of the world for the world its self. There are reasons for such.
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The World is on Fire
At present moment, the world is on fire. Our innocence, industry, and future are being consumed by roaring flames.
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Is Life Fair?
Life can be harsh on the human constitution; it can bring us to our lowest and likewise to our highest. But in doing so, we must ask, is life fair?
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What is Creativity?
What is creativity? Such is hard to say, but we can start with the drunken man who walks the streets at night.
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Is Economics a Science?
The question is asked a lot: is economics a science? And quite frankly, a lot of people show their bias when trying to answer. There are a few simple reasons as to why economics is a science.
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What is Science (Science Explained)
How do we know what science is? In general, every science follows a few essential principles; of which are observation, explanation, prediction, and falsifiability. These are the four principles that contribute to creating a science.
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Is Moral Philosophy Dead? (Sorry, Sam Harris)
Moral Philosophy has died in the west, and intellectuals killed it.
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Why You Dated Your Crazy Ex
The reason why you dated your crazy ex is right in front of you, but you probably missed it. Read why..
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Speech Acts: how to apologize and invite
John searle lays out a theory of how speech acts work, and we explore it in more detail here.
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How To Discourse Analysis
Some sentences make sense even when they shouldn’t. So what gives? how do humans process natural language?
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The Two Types of Readers
There are two types of readers in the world; there are applied and pure readers. Each has their own purpose for reading, and each has their own pros and cons.
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We Should Marry Machines
Our society will face this problem soon, and so it is important to discuss now: should humans marry machines?
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What Nutella Says About Us
Why did people buy all that Nutella? And how can we explain it?
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Frege’s Contradiction
Frege, a philosopher and mathematician, has done great things. But, like all greats, is far from perfection.
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Adam Smith: mediums of exchange
Complex systems, like economies, require common mediums of exchange, like money, to increase their efficiency.
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How to Speak Practically: Introduction to Pragmatics
Sometimes, what we think and what we say don’t necessarily line-up. When this happens, word meaning changes. Lets find out why.
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Adam Smith: the dangers of specialization
Adam Smith praised specialization; however, was he entirely correct in doing so? read on to find out.
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How Words Relate: lexical relationships
How do words relate to another? In this article, we will discuss vital distinctions to know for any competent linguist.
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Adam Smith: why we don’t want AGI and the dangers of specialization
;Adam Smith has some important lessons to teach us about Artificial Intelligence. His discussion on the division of labour seems to suggest general AI is the wrong way to go.
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Evolutionary Psychology: What is it?
Frequently, people will conflate the views of sociobiology with evolutionary psychology, and misunderstand the level of analysis that evolutionary psychology operates on. Learn the differences here.
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How to Love Forever
There is a traditional view of love that perhaps nearly everyone is familiar with: namely, the love of a particular. Lets see why this view is wrong.
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The Wealth of Nations: the first of many
In this essay, I discuss the dangers of conflating consumption with human psychology, something Adam Smith does in his wealth of nations.
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The Language of Religion
Thus, it is my intent to analyze religious thought through the lens of cognitive linguistics; to apply the research and theories of that academic discipline to the language and ideas of religion. In particular, we shall consider how image schemas and conceptual metaphors contribute to our understanding of a specific religious idea; that being, the idea that God is everything, an omnipotent mind which is spread throughout all of existence.
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To be Happy: the present
The future is cannot bring us happiness, only the present can.
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To be Happy: the future
Happiness in the future is a delusion, it only comes from present.
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Hitchens and Conformity: a student’s perspective on Academia
University punishes critical thought and free intellectual thought, especially if its creative.
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How Scientific Language Differs From Ordinary Language
In the study of Psychology, there is a separation between everyday psychological language and scientific language. The difference in these two modes of language stems from the scientific conception of term-meaning and the layperson’s conception of term meaning. Indeed, there is a separation between the two, and many do not realize it because common sense psychology is composed of our natural intuitions about ourselves and others.
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How Philosophical Analysis Creates Useless Problems
Philosophy, when taken too literally, can create useless problems of metaphysics. Read how philosophy creates useless problems.
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We Are Numbers: the pressures of society
Society is nothing but numbers to the eyes of higher ups
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Words are Meaningless
An essay about the relationship between words, meaning, and brains.
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Logic Cannot Explain Language
The Philosophy of language, which consists of many schools of thought concerned with the investigation of language, has become increasingly popular over the years. Because of such, the field has already experienced two major paradigm shifts and plenty of contentious debates within the lifetimes of its proponents. However, despite the growth in popularity and rapid introduction of new ideas, the growth in interdisciplinary perspectives inside this area of language investigation has yet to occur. Among the many debates and ideas about language, a lack of consideration about the neural and cognitive processes involved in language is quite evident.
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Human Conflict is Inevitable
An essay that explores the biological roots to conflict, and how it is that those biological roots interact with culture to make conflict inevitable.
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Phenomenology and Meditation
the phenomenology of meditation, and what it teaches us about philosophy
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Social Media Herd
Humans, among many, are exemplary models of herd animals; we live in various social groups, assign one another social roles, and often follow a variety social mores and norms.
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Schizophrenia and Crimes
A short essay on the relationship between schizophrenia and crime. Are schizophrenia and criminality linked?
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Narcissism is Human Nature: we love only ourselves
Despite what one might typically think, not only are all human relationships chemically reinforced, but they are an act of self love. This is because our brains construct reality….read more.
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The Mind is Like a Book
A short essay about the similarities found between a mind and a book.
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Existence and Literature
A short essay about edgar allen poe and the nature of existence.
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The Government of Imagination: How Media Influences Public Opinion
Governments aren’t after your vote, they’re after your imagination, which will get them your vote. This post explains how imaginations influence what we think about the future, and so influence who we follow, and how this is used in politics and media.
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