Saudade: Happy Melancholy, Nostalgia for What Is Absent
Portuguese speakers commonly boast that “saudade” is untranslatable. Does that mean certain emotion experiences can be unique to a particular culture?
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Ideas
An Experience Is ‘Interesting’ but the World is Not
Examining the ways in which we use the word ‘interesting’ unlocks a key understanding about human existence and how we experience the world.
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Why Losing a Dog Can Be Harder than Losing a Loved One
The dog is the only animal that has evolved specifically to be our companion—and has a unique ability to meet our needs.
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Montessori Schools Let Kids Choose Their Own Work
Montessori schools maintain that children who freely chose their activities build their self-discipline and ability to concentrate.
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Free-range Parenting Has Protection in Utah, Many Battles Ahead
Free-range parenting gains momentum in Utah, but families nation-wide still face threats to their autonomy from intrusive governments.
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Infantilization of Western Culture: Adults No Longer Adult
College students aren’t the only ones embracing infantilization, but what happens when an entire society succumbs to childlike behavior?
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Is ‘Know Thyself’ the Greatest Delphic Maxim We Know?
We’re familiar with ‘know thyself’ as one of the highest commands of philosophy, but we’d be remiss if we ignored the other Delphic maxims.
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Shared Reality and Truth Are Losing Ground to Tribalism
People turn to tribalism for a sense of certainty, as trust in institutions and commitment to truth erode. Instead, we need to restore a shared reality which builds common ground, regardless of identity group.
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Steiner Schools Foster Creativity, Capability, and Resiliency
Steiner schools, known for their artistic and holistic approach to education, are expanding all over the world, but are they as effective as traditional schools?
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Cult, New Religious Movement, or Minority Religion?
We need to change the language we use when talking about religion, starting with the word “cult.”
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True Happiness Means Embracing Sadness and Pain
We are often sent messages that we shouldn’t feel negative emotions, so people are highly conditioned to want to change or get rid of their emotions, which leads to suppression, rumination, and/or avoidance—thus impeding our happiness.
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Truth Is Not Absolute, but that Which Works
A common view of truth aims for that which corresponds with reality. Left with nothing but our own interpretations of the world, Pragmatists, like William James and Charles Peirce, argue that the best we can do is to hold to that which works.
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Meaning of Life No Longer Matters to Philosophers
Professional philosophers rarely ask ‘What is the meaning of life?’ and when they do, they often dismiss it as nonsense.
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Comfort with Solitude Comes Before the Ability to Think
Freedom entails the capacity to think and to judge in private, where solitude empowers the individual to contemplate their actions and develop their conscience, to escape the cacophony of the crowd. Solitude precedes moral thinking.
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Economists with Physics Envy Are Harmful
Observing the acclaim physics was having, economists embraced a physical view of human behavior hoping to replicate similar success. However, unlike physics, the social nature of human beings makes any laws of behavior tentative and contextual.
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Self-Esteem, Self-Compassion, or Self-Indifference? Which is Best?
Millennials are the generation who came of age during the self-esteem movement. The concept of self-esteem is losing it’s currency, but are self-compassion or self-indifference better frameworks for emotional health?
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‘Enlightenment Now’ Demands a New Romanticism
There are many who say that Romanticism is dead. But the tensions between Romanticism and the soldiers of the original Enlightenment are rising up again.
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Earth’s Carrying Capacity for Human Life Is More than You Think
The claim that earth has a carrying capacity of 7 billion is based on old concepts—misunderstanding how fertility rates and consumption work.
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In Physics, Beauty Doesn’t Equal Truth
Most of physics’ beautiful ideas are hard or impossible to test. When we try to rectify a perceived lack of beauty, we waste time on problems that aren’t really problems. Physicists must rethink their methods, now.
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Treating Carbon Emissions Like Trash Collection Could Reverse Climate Change
We already have the technology to reverse Climate Change, but one great obstacle remains—Nori is a company that believes it can solve that problem, succeeding where political activism has not.
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Why We Should Still Listen to Award Speeches, Even if ‘They’re Just Celebrities’
Perceived as self-congratulatory or smug acts of virtue-signaling, awards ceremony speeches play key roles in raising awareness for important issues. Celebrities are not political experts. Still, that shouldn’t distract the public from reflecting on hot-button issues like minority representation in film, and sexual misconduct.
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Workers Can’t Stop Industry Change, but They Can Prepare for It
New technology may erode some industries, but as a whole, it improves lives and productivity; Still, we all have to adapt if we want to withstand the initial shocks resulting from this creative destruction.
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We Can Never Know Whether Something Is Good or Bad, and That’s Okay
This Taoist parable highlights how our obsession with evaluating outcomes can be a deceiving diversion that distracts us from action and inner peace.
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Lost Communication in a Completely Connected World
Like never before has technology been able to bring people together, from all over the world; yet, we struggle to resists its use as a way to alienate ourselves from one another.
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