Hot Thought

Psychology meets philosophy: knowledge, reality, morality, meaning

Paul Thagard Ph.D.

Is Writing Agony or Ecstasy?

The pain of writing is balanced by the joy of creation and communication.

The Ethics of Mandatory Vaccination

Rights to autonomy and privacy are used to argue against requiring people to be vaccinated for COVID-19. But the principle of avoiding harm sometimes justifies limiting freedom.

How Feelings Can Deliver Misinformation

Misinformation doesn't only arise from false beliefs; sometimes it comes from feelings, such as defective emotions.

Changing Minds: Logic or Empathy?

People who are misinformed about vaccines and other issues can be confronted using evidence-based logic. But another method that employs empathy and questioning might work better.

Songs and Emotions for Aging and Retirement

Songs about aging and retirement convey negative emotions such as regret, but also positive emotions such as contentment and determination.

What Is Hope and Is There Any?

We can be more hopeful about social and personal problems if we appreciate the differences between kinds of hope, such as honest versus false hope.

What Is COVID Fatigue?

Pandemic fatigue is a complex of emotions that includes sadness, boredom, loneliness, anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, and resentment. These can be changed.

Deepak Chopra’s Infinite Potential

Chopra’s claim that humans have infinite potential is based on dogmas about consciousness and the universe that go against scientific evidence.

Why Do People Like Breakup Songs?

Breakup songs can help you identify your emotions, empathize with others, and find paths to overcoming the pain of romantic disappointment.

Misinformation About COVID-19

Misinformation about COVID-19 spreads even more rapidly than the disease. Its appeal has many psychological causes, including motivated reasoning and evidence-free transmission.

Mapping Emotional Change in Psychotherapy

Psychotherapists help clients to reduce negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, and guilt while increasing positive emotions such as happiness and hope.

A Critique of Christof Koch's Account of Consciousness

Neural theories of consciousness are on the rise, but Information Integration Theory is a poor candidate.

Balancing Lives in Pandemic Decisions

Policy choices about the COVID-19 pandemic are often described as requiring a balance between health and the economy, but what is balancing?

New Quarantine Concepts

The coronavirus pandemic has brought many new concepts such as "flattening the curve" and "quarantine haircut." What is the nature of these concepts and how were they formed?

Pandemic Playlist: Songs for Crisis

Happy and sad songs can help people to deal with emotions in a crisis that is both medical and social.

Virus Ethics: Who Gets the Ventilator?

Medical systems are becoming overwhelmed by the new coronavirus disease, leading to dilemmas about how to distribute scarce resources such as ventilators. Values are crucial.

Cooking, Cubism, and Brain Soup

The development of new methods in art and science works by the same mental processes seen in the invention of cooking, cubist art, and counting neurons.

Strong Advice on Aging, but Dubious Thoughts on Retirement

Daniel Levitin’s new book on aging has excellent advice on topics such as memory, sleep, exercise, and diet, but not on retirement.

Why Does Tai Chi Feel Good?

Tai chi is moving meditation with cognitive benefits by focusing attention, emotional benefits by breathing coordinated with body movements, and social benefits by group action.

The Moral Psychology of the Green New Deal

The Green New Deal is a radical plan to avoid disastrous harms from climate change while increasing equality, so that more people will be able to satisfy their needs. Is it ethical?

How To Build Beneficial AI

Stuart Russell’s preference-based proposal on how to build beneficial AI is impractical and contrary to plausible views in psychology and philosophy.

Finding Meaning in Life Through Philosophy and Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy helps people find meaning in their lives by reflecting on their feelings. Philosophy complements this process by examining what is objectively meaningful.

Cultural Appropriation, Appreciation, and Denigration

Singer Kacey Musgraves and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have been accused of cultural appropriation. Did they engage in denigration or just appreciation?

Does It Matter What Minds Are Made Of?

Contrary to claims that thinking is an abstract process that could operate in diverse machines, it matters that minds are brains coupled with bodies.

Why Pets Are NOT People

Pets are not people because humans have many mental and social advantages that show that owning pets is not slavery.

Harari’s Mistakes about Mind and Brain

Yuval Noah Harari’s books make interesting observations and conjectures about human societies, but lack understanding of the operations of mind and brain.

How to Build Ethical Artificial Intelligence

AI raises difficult ethical questions about employment, privacy, inequality, and machine domination. Answers to these questions can be based on vital human needs.

National Emotions

Many countries and regions have feelings that community members recognize as typical of them. What is your national emotion?

Should You Believe in Psychics?

Belief in psychics is based on poor evidence and personal motivations rather than sound reasoning.

How Can You Tell If Your Lover Is Cheating?

The best explanation of possible signs of cheating requires taking into account the evidence explained, alternative explanations, simplicity, analogy, and deeper explanations.

  • Previous
  • Page 1 (current)
  • Next