"Ecstatic experiences” are when we seem to joyfully “lose” or transcend or go beyond ourselves. This essay introduces some philosophical issues about ecstatic experiences.
Category: Mind & Language
Philosophical Counseling: Using Philosophy to Address Life’s Challenges
This essay describes a leading approach to philosophical counseling, known as Logic-Based Therapy, that has been developed and used since the 1980s.
Phenomenology: Describing Experiences From a First-Person Perspective
The philosophical method called phenomenology tries to understand experiences from the inside, i.e., what it’s like to live through different types of experiences from the individual experiencer’s own point of view. This essay introduces phenomenology’s attempt to achieve this understanding of our experiences.
Animal Minds
It’s natural to believe that many nonhuman animals think and feel—and therefore have minds—but it’s important to consider whether these beliefs are justified. This essay explores animal minds, the challenges involved in studying them, and why such study matters.
Philosophy of Pain
An introduction to the philosophy of pain: is pain physical or mental? What is the role of the pain system? And, is pain always unpleasant? These questions are the focus of this essay.
Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Society, and the Environment
This essay introduces some of the most urgent moral and societal issues related to Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence: The Possibility of Artificial Minds
An artificial intelligence or “AI” would be an entity that thinks or acts like an average human being—or even surpasses the average human being in cognitive abilities—yet is a machine or computer program. The idea of artificial intelligence is closely connected to several important philosophical discussions about the nature of minds. This essay is an introduction to philosophical thinking about artificial minds and AIs.
The Mind-Body Problem: What Are Minds?
What are minds? And what (if anything) is the relationship of the mind to the body/brain—or to anything in nature? These questions constitute the so-called “mind-body problem.” This essay introduces some of the most influential answers to these questions.
Philosophy of Color
What is color? Where, if anywhere, is it? Why do we see it? When do we see it correctly? And how should we go about answering these surprisingly difficult questions? This essay surveys philosophical work on color and color perception.
Self-Knowledge: Knowing Your Own Mind
We usually know our own mental states better than others know them. And we usually come to know them in different ways than how others come to know them. How do we come to possess self-knowledge?