CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY The Philosophy Of Ghosts Key Takeaways: French philosopher Jacques Derrida invented the term ‘hauntology’ for his 1993 lecture Spectres of Marx. It is that eerie zone where time collapses and our past memories and associations haunt our minds, like a ghost. Hauntology also describes a post-traumatic-like disquiet of those born in the 1960s and ‘70s. English theorist Mark Fisher […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Are The Ancient Truths Of Buddhism A Modern Invention? Key Takeaways: For many people, Buddhism appears to be uniquely compatible with modern lifestyles and world views. Buddhist mindfulness has influenced many schools of contemporary psychology. Buddhist philosophy embraces constant change and the inherent impermanence of all things. The 19th century Burmese monk Ledi Sayadawtravelled the nation teaching meditation and founding study groups. The forms […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Philosophy As A Way Of Life? Key Takeaways: French philosopher Pierre Hadot (1922-2010) began his intellectual career as a trainee priest and philologist. His best known work is his 1995 book Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, based on a 1981 French collection. He argues that the way we mostly think about philosophy today, as […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE The Perception Of Sentience Key Takeaways: Any suggestion that a bee, or any invertebrate, had a mind of its own or that it could experience the world in an intricate and multifaceted way would be met with ridicule. Failure to recognise your hive and return home equals death. The questions we pose to understand the minds of bees must […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE How Philosophy Transformed Into Physics Key Takeaways: The Nobel Prize in physics this year has been awarded “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”. Another possibility is that the quantum world is just like the ordinary world we know and love, but our view of it is distorted, so we can’t […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Do We Have Free Will And Do We Want It? Are we free or are our actions determined by the laws of physics? And how much free will do we actually want? These questions have troubled philosophers for millennia – and there are still no perfect answers. But it turns out that a character from a children’s TV series can provide a clue. Thomas the Tank Engine, despite […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY TECHNOLOGY Can A.I. Artists Beat Human Creativity? Key Takeaways: People consider creativity to be inherently human. But these AI models are beginning to have an impact in the real world, as seen with the prize-winning Midjourney picture. And generating fine art is different to producing digital designs. Both methods use the same underlying approach, known as a diffusion model computer program, which […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY The Essence Of Classical Pianos Key Takeaways: Pianos still proliferate in music schools, despite predictions about the decline of acoustic music. It is a sad fact, though, that homes can be hard to find for old pianos, especially uprights. Partly, this is due to their ubiquity in earlier generations. It used to be the case that every home had an […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY PSYCHOLOGY How Pessimism Is Human Nature Key Takeaways: In today’s society, being happy and having an optimistic attitude are social expectations that weigh heavily on how we live and the choices we make. This is why if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical system that can help us achieve it. Compassion for living beings And as […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY What Is Love? A Philosopher’s View Woven through Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi’s latest contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a sentimental and age-old commentary on mortality and love. In this intergalactic rom-com, the hammer-wielding Gods of Thunder face the shady “god butcher” Gorr in a race to the Gates of Eternity. Gorr has inherited his god-killing gift through […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
What Is The Black Box In A.I.? Key Takeaway AI black boxes refer to invisible systems with internal workings, such as machine learning. These systems have algorithms, training data, and models, which can be hidden or obscured to protect intellectual property. Explainable AI is working to develop algorithms that can be better understood by humans. Black box machine-learning algorithms and models can […] Written by Saurabh Bagchi June 1, 2023June 1, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secrets Of Vernacular Art Key Takeaway Vernacular art, a self-taught visual art genre, is dominated by African American, Appalachian, and working-class artists. It has gained recognition, with the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, American Visionary Art Museum, Atlanta’s High Museum, and Milwaukee Art Museum building significant collections. Vernacular art emphasizes the artist’s biography, providing meaning and value to collectors […] Written by Beauvais Lyons May 31, 2023May 31, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Does Insider Trading Actually Matter? Key Takeaway: Insider trading is an illegal act in which someone relies on market-moving, nonpublic information to decide whether to buy or sell a financial asset. Punishment can range from a few months to over a decade. Insider trading is common and profitable, but difficult to prove and prevent. It undermines public confidence in financial […] Written by Alexander Kurov May 10, 2023May 10, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are We Living In A Simulation? Key Takeaway: Rene Descartes suggests that nothing truly exists, suggesting that the mind is real but may be deceived by a higher power. Descartes theory led to an experiment called The Brain in a Vat, which suggests that humans are bodyless with their brains in a vat controlled by supercomputing. Clara Moskowitz suggests that our […] Written by Nathaniel Shaw May 9, 2023May 9, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Unravelling The Secrets Of DNA Key Takeaway: Seventy years ago, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA, which led to technologies such as DNA fingerprinting, gene sequencing, gene editing and personalised medicines. Franklin, along with her PhD student Raymond Gosling, created one of the most famous images in science, Photo 51. Matthew Cobb and Nathaniel Comfort unearthed […] Written by Mark Lorch May 8, 2023May 8, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Concept Of Beauty In The Middle Ages Key Takeaway: Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures since time immemorial, often based on binary notions of idealised forms of femininity or masculinity. Eleanor Janega’s book explores medieval women’s social roles to consider the ways that women’s roles have and haven’t changed. Religious women in the middle ages used weaponised beauty to […] Written by Empirics Asia May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
What It Means To Be Authentic In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Authenticity is important for both individuals and society, as it is a social glue that reinforces trust. People need to reexamine and recalibrate how authenticity is judged. Social science offers guidance on what makes something feel authentic. George Newman found three dimensions of authenticity: historical authenticity, categorical authenticity, and values and beliefs. Generative […] Written by Victor Lee May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
