philosophy

Is the self just a fiction we create to make sense of a complicated world?

What will life be like when every road you travel, every device you own, every building you enter is connected to the internet?

Can we still lead productive, meaningful lives if the demand for human labor disappears?  

What could be controversial about a movement insisting that Black lives matter too? 

Is the internet destroying language?

Have we entered a post-truth era in which politicians and "news" outlets can lie without consequence?

Is there a place in democratic society for comedy that finds humor in people's deepest identities?

We don't have only one friend at a time, so why have only one lover at a time?

The laws of physics determine how things in the cosmos change. But what would happen if the laws themselves changed?

If humans are so rational, then how come we're subject to so much unconscious bias and error?

Can we trust an algorithm to make morally responsible driving decisions?

Could rational communication really be the true key to real democracy?   

If humans have human rights because they’re persons, are there some nonhumans who are also persons with nonhuman rights?

What rights should undocumented immigrants have?

What is the goal of a belief: to make you feel better, to make you successful, or to track the truth?

What do citizens owe the state? What does the state owe its citizens?

Who has the right to decide my own medical treatment other than me?

Would a race of thinking, autonomous, conscious machines be our slaves, our masters, or our partners?

Are Space and Time two separate entities, or just different dimensions of one thing? And what difference does that make?

Democracy may not be in great shape, but why would anyone prefer to be ruled by a despot?

Is the most elegant explanation always the best one?

If you know San Francisco, you’ll know the newly remodeled Dolores Park, where people gather to eat ice cream in the sun.

You’ll also know the Presidio, the former military complex now designated a National Park. And you’ll easily name the city’s largest park, since it’s twenty percent larger than Central Park in New York: it’s Golden Gate Park. But can you name the city’s second largest park? 

Is knowing what you don't know the first step toward wisdom, or is a little arrogance a good thing?

Is queerness just a marker of sexual orientation, or is it a political and social identity?

What could we possibly still say to people who don't believe the climate is changing?

Do all views have a place on university campuses, or are there some views that should never be given a platform?  

What is it like to teach philosophy in prison. What is it like to study philosophy while serving time?

How do we justify keeping so many nuclear weapons – and continually threatening to use them?

Could our universe be just one among an infinite number of universes in the multiverse?