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A Psychic and a Skeptic Walk Into a Vortex
On a trip to Sedona, Ariz., a writer tries to understand her mystically inclined mother’s beliefs with the help of crystals, meditation and visits to the area’s supposed celestial portals. ... In his 2023 book “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life,” Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, defines the feeling as “being in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world.” Although awe is an emotion, it can also act as the connective tissue that stitches together the everyday enigmas that inform — or challenge — our philosophies. In this way, it’s not unlike empathy. ...
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You Don’t Need Words to Think
Scholars have long contemplated the connection between language and thought—and to what degree the two are intertwined—by asking whether language is somehow an essential prerequisite for thinking. British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell answered the question with a flat yes, asserting that language’s very purpose is “to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.” But even a cursory glance around the natural world suggests why Russell may be wrong: No words are needed for animals to perform all sorts of problem-solving challenges that demonstrate high-level cognition.
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A New Approach to Understanding Psychopathology: Insights from the HiTOP Model
Podcast: APS’s Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum and Miri Forbes of Macquarie University address how traditional models like the DSM categorize mental health disorders and explore Forbes’ recent study, which highlights the more nuanced and dimensional approach that the emerging HiTOP offers.
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The Branch of Philosophy All Parents Should Know
Of the many challenges I encountered as a parent of young children, the biggest was trying to answer the question: Am I doing a good job? I found plenty of people, drawing on expertise in biology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary history, eager to offer opinions and tips. Some of this information was useful. But none of it gave me what I really wanted—a big-picture vision of what it meant to be a “good” parent, or of what I fundamentally owed my kids. ... A relatively recent attempt to integrate care into everyday thinking is the Social Science of Caregiving.
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Numbers Are Persuasive—If Used in Moderation
The facts of climate change are widely reported. NASA notes, for example, that with a two-degree-Celsius increase in global temperatures, as compared with a 1.5-degree-C increase, about 61 million more people living in urban areas around the world will be exposed to severe drought. In addition, the U.S. alone could lose 2.3 percent of its gross domestic product for each degree-C increase in global warming. The problem with communicating these numbers, however, is that many people balk when confronting them.
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Monday — Friday: Making the Most of the Workweek
Week in, week out, we work. But what can we do to not lose ourselves in the 9-to-5 grind? This hour, we question how long we work, why we valorize work, and what good leadership looks like. Guests include executive coach Anne Morriss, economist Juliet Schor, social psychologist Azim Shariff and political scientist Margaret Levi.
