Jay Matthews

In this age of utopian technologies, we can design mechanical limbs for amputees and chemically engineer happiness for depressives. But should we? From the fluoride in our water to genetically modified babies, scientific advances pose complex new ethical questions. We ask discuss the major bioethical issues of our time. Is philosophy braced for... See more

Systems where defects are swept under the rug, or “will be dealt with at the end of the project” inevitably gain that unshakeable perception of being “buggy”, which will harm your digital product, no matter how innovative it is.

Any experience of love holds within it a dimension of dependence. In fact, dependence is an essential ingredient of connection. But it’s a producer of terrific anxiety, because it implies that the one we love wields power over us. This is the power to love us, but also to abandon us. Fear—of judgment, of rejection, of loss—is embedded in romantic... See more

Maria Popova reflects on the different worlds of Lightman's book, describing the different ways in which different worlds relate to time.

This internal requirement toward excellence which we learn from the erotic must not be misconstrued as demanding the impossible from ourselves nor from others. Such a demand incapacitates everyone in the process. For the erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. Once we know the... See more

In the spirit of its time, traditional psychoanalysis consisted of an authoritarian analyst–patient relationship and promulgated values such as a scientific approach to human affairs, the affirmation of paternalistic gender roles, individual achievement, personal responsibility, and a strongly bounded self.