Being Human
NFN: A blink of an eye
“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that…
Articles
Essays, interviews and ideas from New Philosopher.
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Ideas to change your life
Observation is all we have
Nicholas Humphrey is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at London School of Economics and Bye Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. Humphrey has been studying…
Being Human
NFN: A form of power
“No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.” — Niels Bohr In quantum physics, the ‘observer effect’ refers…
Being Human
The fourth wall
It seems that Erving Goffman was not a nice man. He liked to ruffle feathers and watch the fallout. One time he invited a…
Competitions
Can we make love stay?
The breakup of a high-profile Hollywood couple in 2004 was an underappreciated moment. When asked about it in an interview, one of the pair…
Ideas to change your life
The invisible gorilla
Daniel J. Simons is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois where he heads the Visual Cognition Laboratory. In addition to his…
Ideas to change your life
Life without anger
It’s rarely a good idea to take advice from a philosopher. (And yes, I’m a philosopher offering you that advice.) But when your brother…
Happiness
NFN: Mixed feelings
“To be able to respond to anger without bitterness, to respond to fear without retreat, to meet joy without arrogance – this is the…
News
The wheel of emotion
Emotions can hijack our minds. They prepare us for action, and they neighbour our perception. But they also reveal what matters to us most.…
Happiness
The meaning of moods
When we ask people how they are, we are, in essence, asking them about their mood because moods are how we orientate ourselves in…
News
NFN: Silent networks
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod…
News
NFN: Art <--> Science
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts…