Originally posted in four parts on BigThink.com Consider the story of my first encounter with Sartre. I read Being and Nothingness in college. The professor, a Nietzsche aficionado, explained Sartre’s adage that existence precedes essence. After two years of ancient philosophy the idea struck me as profound. If it was true, then Plato and Aristotle were wrong:… read more »
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Posts Tagged: steven pinker
Between Haidt and Harris: Belief, Religion and Morality
What motivates a suicide bomber? That question divides Sam Harris and Jonathan Haidt, two scholars who study religion from the psychological perspective. For Harris the answer is religion. “Subtract the Muslim belief in martyrdom and jihad, and the actions of suicide bombers become completely unintelligible,” he says in The End of Faith. Haidt takes a… read more »
A Nauseating Corner of Psychology: Disgust
Like many features of the human condition, the first psychological account of disgust comes from Charles Darwin, who in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals defined it this way: “Something revolting, primarily in relation to the sense of taste, as actually perceived or vividly imagined; and secondarily to anything which causes a… read more »
Why We’re Suckers for Sorrow
One paradox of good fiction is that it centers on sadness. If fiction gives us pleasure, then why are we drawn towards what’s gravely unpleasant? Think about classics in the Western cannon. Romeo and Juliet ends with a double suicide; Anna Karenina throws herself in front of an oncoming train; in versions of Goethe’s Faust the Devil carries the protagonist… read more »
Biology Over Art: What Modernism Misses
Sometime in 1952, the American experimental musician John Cage put the finishing touches on a composition that challenged the definition of music. It was a three-part movement written for any instrument or combination of instruments. He called it four minutes and thirty-three seconds (4:33) and debuted it at Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, New York. David Tudor,… read more »