Do we get bored with everything? Do friends and lovers, work and play, and even life itself eventually become dull and tedious? Does dissatisfaction with people and projects always set in? Continue reading Boredom →

Wilhelm Wundt (seated) with colleagues in his psychological laboratory, the first of its kind.

Let me begin by stating unequivocally that we are all flawed psyches; we are all damaged, we all deviate from psychic harmony. The world is full of damaged psyches. Continue reading Damaged Psyches →

I have previously written about the philosopher David Benatar’s anti-natalism. Now Oxford University Press has published his new book The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.  Here is a brief summary of the book followed by a few comments.

Continue reading Benatar: The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.  →

Global temperature anomalies for 2015 compared to the 1951–1980 baseline. 2015 was the warmest year in the NASA/NOAA temperature record, which starts in 1880. It has since been superseded by 2016.

The Science

To understand climate change you just need basic physics and mathematics. The physics works like this. The earth’s surface temperature is governed by the absorption and emission of thermal radiation, and greenhouse gases (GHG) like CO₂ and CH₄ (methane) trap thermal radiation making the earth’s surface warmer. The mathematics is even simpler. Continue reading The Prisoner’s Dilemma and Climate Change →

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Continue reading Bertrand Russell on Thinking →