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Here’s a fun philosophy experiment: Put your hand face down on the nearest surface, and let it rest. When you’re ready, after a few seconds, lift your hand up. You can lift your hand when you want. In your own time. Did you do it? What made you choose that exact moment? What was it…

What would happen if you refused to read the lines you’re supposed to? If you spoke your mind, and acted as you *really* wanted, what would people think? This is how the protagonist of Albert Camus’ “The Outsider”, Meursault, treats the world. He refuses to express feelings he doesn’t have or behave as people want…

Philosophers can be a little bit arrogant. They’ll swagger into someone else’s discipline and tell them what’s what. Worst of all is when philosophers pretend to do science. This is the charge that Patricia Churchland levels at the “philosophy” of mind. She argues it’s a pseudo-scientific nonsense of armchair academics, who have no idea how…

If I asked what you did yesterday, what would you say? Likely, you’d give me a few of the highlights. You wouldn’t give me an hour by hour account of every tiny detail. But why not? Surely that would be thorough? Helpful even? Paul Grice observed that in every conversation there are certain “maxims” that…

Art exaggerates life. It examines, abstracts, glorifies, distils, or unpacks all of our experiences. Poets wrap the everyday in eloquence. Movies explore the human condition. Painters colour a moment with mood. Yet, sometimes, in the process, something of life is missed. When art sees only bucolic meadows, it misses the reality of grimy metropolises, suffocating…