Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

So here is the report from the New York Times we all could have guessed we’d find ourselves reading one of these mornings. While it is premature to conclude that the pause and retrenchment on government approval of booster vaccines will prove to…

That is an interesting case that gets a lot of Sher’s moving parts moving! Nothing autobiographical of course… I think Sher would say this: (a) obsessive worrying/planning for unlikely disasters predictably brings misery (so that, in virtue…

“She is, let’s say, driving through a storm when her car is pulled into floodwaters.” That would never happen though. LikeLike

Suppose that a person is diligently paranoid. In other words, imagine a person who, by conventional standards, worries excessively about risks that involve low probabilities but high stakes. For instance, imagine this person’s applying the precautionary principle in ways most people find problematically risk-averse. And imagine her actively planning for exigencies in ways that consume…

Habitat loss is the biggest threat to the world’s animals. Without improvements in crop yields, thousands of species could see much of their habitat lost to farmland.

The CDC released data last month showing how women fled NYC at the height of the pandemic to give birth, largely as a reaction to fear of overwhelmed hospitals as well as restrictive birthing policies. What’s interesting about the data, from my perspective, is how clearly it demonstrates that it’s those with wealth who can…