Is confusion good?
Those who cannot accept an absence of order often end up trying to create it, with disastrous results.
ReadAuthor: Julian Baggini
Do your genes determine your entire life?
The idea that unconscious biological forces drive our beliefs and actions would seem to pose a real threat to our free will. We like to think that we make choices on the basis of our own conscious deliberations. But isn’t all that thinking things over irrelevant if our final decision was already written in our genetic code? And doesn’t the whole edifice of personal responsibility collapse if we accept that “my genes made me do it”?
ReadBusinesses on the mindfulness bandwagon
When people claim that “mindfulness works”, they can mean different things. There are claims that it promotes psychological flexibility, awareness, resilience, better decision-making, job performance, reduced absence rates and the ability to learn new tasks. No wonder businesses are interested.
ReadShould we invite the unwelcome?
No matter how much I am committed to my views, I am even more committed to the idea that they should be able to stand up to rational scrutiny. This commitment means nothing if I actively avoid serious challenge and only seek out confirming viewpoints.
ReadTo tip or not to tip?
Tipping challenges the sweeping generalisations of economists and anthropologists alike. To understand how and why we tip is to begin to understand just how complicated and fascinating we human beings are.
Read