Two philosophers argue that what distinguishes religious belief is not its content but the attitude involved: religious credence is voluntarily adopted and largely resistant to evidence, unlike involuntary, evidence-driven factual belief. They contend this psychological contrast helps justify Jefferson's separation of church and state.
An essay argues that psychology's influential 'empty self' metaphor, which casts behaviour as driven by fleeting situational cues, has been weakened by the replication crisis. The authors contend that personality traits and an enduring self predict behaviour about as strongly as situations do.
Lei Wang reflects on moving from transcendence and nondual awakening toward ordinary emotional life, including therapy, somatic inquiry, and self-help’s contradictions. She argues both needing and not needing to heal can be true, suggesting ego dilution rather than ego dissolution.
A three-year longitudinal study of 16 philosophy scholars found that as they grew familiar with generative AI and acknowledged its formal competence, they drew firmer lines around what counts as genuinely philosophical thinking. Blind evaluations still credited AI output with human-like originality, which the authors call a failure of expectation calibration.
— via Daily Nous, Justin Weinberg
A neurologist argues the Shinkansen pork bun quarrels arise because passengers sharing a carriage may perceive the smell differently, citing genetic variation in smell receptors such as OR7D4, and suggests requests and consideration, not blame, to resolve them.
— via Psyche (Aeon sister), Yusuke Fujioka
A philosopher argues that grief is not confined to bereavement: it arises whenever a loss dislodges possibilities woven into one's identity and world. Drawing on personal losses and work by Ratcliffe and Richardson, he treats death as grief's most extreme instance, not its only one.
— via Aeon Essays, Derek van Zoonen
Philosophers increasingly doubt that successful communication means two people think the identical thought. Layered thought-sharing and Kit Fine's relationism instead treat understanding as coordination among different thoughts, which suggests more patience when we talk.
— via Psyche (Aeon sister), Víctor Verdejo
