What are some simple experiments that help explain complicated phenomena? [more inside]
posted by Christ, what an asshole on Jul 6, 2009 - 15 answers

What is a classic, perhaps philosophical, novel about individual freedom to choose? So that no matter how desperate the situation you find yourself in, you always have choices about what to do, how to feel and how to think about your situation. [more inside]
posted by zaebiz on Mar 10, 2009 - 23 answers

What are some of the best books and articles on cognitive philosophy, particularly those that cover the debates about mental representations, intentionality, and connectionism? I'm looking both for new writings that are cognizant of advances in neuroscience, and older classics that helped frame the arguments. Thanks.
posted by shivohum on Feb 4, 2009 - 9 answers

To what extent can we discern different colours? What of this power is merely relational (a light blue, a lighter blue)? Have studies been done to determine if our "resolution of discernment" (a particular distance in nanometers of which we can differentiate two visual wavelengths with unaided vision)? What's the difference between how we speak of colour, how we conjure it up in its particularity in our imagination, and how we differentiate it through experience? [more inside]
posted by ageispolis on Oct 31, 2008 - 13 answers

William James-Filter: does anybody know who said this particular thing about him, and where? [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Oct 8, 2008 - 6 answers

I recently heard a rumor that Carl Gustav Jung would rape female patients and hypnotize them so they would have no memory of the attack. Is there any truth to this, or is this the sort of story professional rivals spread to discredit his ideas?
posted by bunky on Sep 14, 2008 - 10 answers

I am interested in the mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts, how cultural remnants transmit information through time and how meaning is translated once an artefact is re-appropriated or examined from a new perspective. I have several avenues of study at the moment (a list in extended explanation), but would like some more ideas. Areas of critical theory, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and poetics are all relevant. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jan 27, 2008 - 12 answers

I am searching for examples of The Infinite, or the immeasurably large, in our mythologies and archetypes. I am also interested in the categories of Truth which came out of the emergence of Western, ontological thought. Does the trust in a rationally conceivable reality deny us the infinity of the mythological realm? By rooting ourselves in the present, and denying atemporal mythologies, do we also deny the infinite origins from where we came? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Nov 28, 2007 - 22 answers

Bernard Williams had a pretty low opinion of evolutionary biology. Are there any essays where he directly or indirectly criticizes the field? What about 'Shame and Necessity'? [more inside]
posted by BigSky on Nov 27, 2007 - 12 answers

Explain Deleuze & Guattari's "abstract machine" in a way I can understand? [more inside]
posted by Joseph Gurl on Mar 27, 2007 - 9 answers

We all know about IQ - but has anybody ever tried to make a standardised test for wisdom? [more inside]
posted by rongorongo on Nov 14, 2006 - 6 answers

What is the nature of the relationship between thought and language? [more inside]
posted by Frankieist on Apr 10, 2006 - 30 answers

What is the label for an entity or idea which began as nothing and came to have identity through its own fictionalisation? That is, notions diametrically opposed to 'simulacra' - in that the entity has no referent to begin with... [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 21, 2006 - 20 answers

What are the various theoretical frameworks for understanding why victims of abuse often 'deal' with their trauma by becoming perpetrators themselves? What explanations have been suggested, for example, as to why sexually molested children often grow up into sexually-molesting adults? The one that comes to mind is that the victim somehow feels he can master the trauma by becoming its perpetrator. What, or who, is the origin of this theory? Is it Freud? Does it (still) have any currency in professional circles? What, if any, other theories have been suggested?
posted by ori on Feb 18, 2006 - 22 answers