Philosophy by the Way

A discussion is going on in the philosophy of science on the question whether understanding phenomena is relevant for science and, if so, ...

I am not so happy now, for I am using my computer. At least, that is what I have to conclude from a study by Matthew A. Killingsworth and D...

Staphorst, the Netherlands: typical farm house When interpreters analyse a text, they tend to see more in it than the author originally had...

Most people outside Japan do not realize that the Fukushima calamity is still a part of the daily reality for many Japanese. One thing that ...

When my wife and I arrived in Skjolden, I did not recognize the little town. Many years ago I had been there with friends, on a tour through...

In my last blog I suggested that the existence of mirror neurons may be the solution of the sociological problem of the tuning of individual...

At first sight mirror neurons look relevant only for sciences that study the individual, like psychology where they can help explain and und...

One of the recent discoveries in neuroscience is the existence of mirror neurones. Mirror neurons are neurons in your brain that fire when y...

In his interesting The Illusion of the Conscious Will Daniel M. Wegner defends the thesis that the conscious will is a kind of emotion, nam...

In one of my first blogs, more than four years, ago I wrote: “Just the idea: A photo of me in front of the Eiffel Tower with Bourdieu’s Un ...

Taking the train In our daily life we do a lot of actions and when we act we do it for a reason. For instance, I need a book for a project ...

(Background music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlQ6rs9uZ8 ) When I wrote my last week’s blog, I did not expect that soon it would become...

The present methods for checking people on airfields on departure and on arrival are sometimes quite time-consuming. Look at the long rows d...

In my last blog I said that the time will not be far away that we can “read” the minds of other people and see what their intentions are. As...

Once I wrote in a blog “On an airport, they can scan your material luggage but not your dangerous thoughts.” At least we hope so, but is it ...

One of the most important inventions at the end of the 20th has been the Internet. It broadens our environment by giving us entry to a world...

Recently the Hungarian psychologist Emese Nagy reconfirmed older research saying that the length of an action is about three seconds. Nagy s...

In the second half of the 19th century it has become a custom that travellers send picture postcards to family and friends at home. The car...

Sooner or later the problems with the Fukushima power plant will come to an end and let’s hope that it will not be with an explosion of one ...

In a comment on the nuclear calamity in Fukushima, Japan, the German philosopher Rüdiger Safranski states that this event shows that we have...

Last week I made my first bike tour after the winter. The winter had been long and also the week before the ride had been quite cold. But in...

More than two years ago I wrote a blog titled “The devil in your mind”. I explained there that Hannah Arendt attributed the evil done by peo...

There are a lot of surprising developments taking place in the Middle East these days. People rise and protest against their suppression and...

Suppose you are a runner and tomorrow you will take part in the cross country championship of your province. You have a good chance to win b...

G.H. Yue and K.J. Cole took eight volunteers and asked them to exercise the muscle that controls the little finger of the left hand for four...

“Writing scientific papers is rather like writing in an ancient verse form. Everything you want to say has to be forced into predetermined s...