ToK Essays Nov 2024

Acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul shares 5 key insights from her new book, The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain.

Philosopher Robert Nozick asked if we would rather live in the real world or inside a virtual reality machine of never-ending pleasure. Frederich Nietzsche asked if truth is really the greatest virtue. People seem to be hard-wired to want the truth, no matter how brutal or unpleasant.

When probing the phrase, “science is biased ” I’ve discovered that “science” in that context is being used to define not the methodology or the body of knowledge it has amassed, but the bureaucratic systems and structures that support, influence, and direct it.

“Consumerism is the stifling of our moral imaginations”

Sudden amnesia let me experience what Buddhists and philosophers have been saying all along about the existence of the self

The mass of human-made objects will for the first time likely exceed that of living things in 2020.

The distribution of wealth follows a well-known pattern sometimes called an 80:20 rule: 80 percent of the wealth is owned by 20 percent of the people. Indeed, a report last year concluded that just eight men had a total wealth equivalent to that of the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people. This seems to occur in…

The long read: A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?

Narratives that historicize colonialism are not new. Canadians and our leaders have a long history of denying our settler colonial present.

How to fight the Dunning-Kruger effect, explained by psychologist David Dunning.

Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West’s new book teaches us how to hack through a world that's full of it, and how to spot in ourselves.

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.