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What Motivated Binghamton’s Jihadist to Murder Professor Antoun?

On December 5th, 2009, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, a 46 year old Binghamton University graduate

The Anxiety Underlying Global Warming Hysteria

Why is it that the overwhelming majority of people who fear “global warming” are politically left of center? The obvious answer is that the left

How to Know Yourself, in Four Easy Steps

Self-knowledge is very difficult to obtain, but it is surely the most valuable desideratum. It can save us from an enormous amount of folly

The Deeper Meaning of Tourettes

When we find ourselves perplexed by behavior that seems incomprehensible, or irrational, we turn to psychology for insight.

The Philosophical Calamity that Created Vampires

“The sleep of reason produces monsters.” — Francisco Goya Myths, legends and stories about vampires have appeared throughout history,

The Deeper Meaning of Dr. Epstein’s Fart

It’s been said that when truth comes down from the mountain and enters the marketplace, it often wears a mask. Some say that it’s out

The Hidden Motives Behind the Balloon Boy Hoax

If self-knowledge were an easy thing, Socrates would not have spent his entire life pursuing it. And yet, most people believe that they know

The Deeper Meaning of Adultery

If you haven’t seen the hit TV drama Mad Men, it’s about a New York advertising agency, in the year 1960. Its protagonist

The Psychological Appeal of Angry Whoppers

Last Tuesday, I gave a seminar at a local college, on the psychology of food. The class explored the psychological notion

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But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who

loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?