What constitutes an explanation in the natural sciences? ... Looking for a categorical difference between natural and social sciences ... Biological and social explanations of human behavior ... The difference between the narratives of social and physical sciences ... Does social science explain events or their interpretations? ... Must a science have “laws”? Are there social scientific laws? ...

A quick look at the life of Wittgenstein ... The misunderstood philosopher ... How does language represent reality (if at all)? ... Wittgenstein the Mystic ... Why your private thoughts are public ... Cognitive science's big Wittgensteinian problem ...

The fractured evangelical vote ... State of the evangelical mind (with a cameo by Sarah's dog Karma) ... The trajectory of Sarah's relationship with Judaism ... Journalistic work as a source of pleasure and meaning ... Mourning without the consolation of an afterlife ... Hillary's brand of liberal Christianity ...

A "higher purpose" that doesn’t involve spooky forces ... What does it matter whether a higher purpose exists? ... What does the “meaning” in “meaning of life” mean? ... Pondering the trajectory of human development ... The importance of understanding other perspectives ... Debating whether we’ve made moral progress ...

What do we mean by a meaningful life? ... Finding purpose in being a part of something bigger ... How social context determines our understanding of meaning ... Fantasies about uniting humanity: one cause, one God, one reality ... Are we making moral progress? ... Is it empowering or terrifying to think we create our own meaning? ...

Finding meaning in Washington D.C. ... Heather’s spiritual life ... Ways Episcopalians think about God ... Tempting things public servants should avoid ... The importance of being hokey ... “There is no having it all” ...

A mathematically informed skepticism of the biographical genre ... The significance of unpredictability ... Using math to understand the trajectory of our lives ... Over time, do our perceptions converge on the truth? ... The delusion of attributing significance to coincidences ... When John learned that math = power ...

Stoicism: a philosophical alternative to religion ... Adapting an ancient philosophy of life to modern times ... Accepting harsh truths ... Confronting regret, fear, and death ... Applying Stoicism to the social sphere ... Interpreting the concept of radical self-sufficiency ...

Brainpickings.org: How an unsettled 22-year-old's office newsletter evolved into a meaning-of-life resource ... Honorable relationships in the age of transactional networking ... Fruitful monotony versus compulsive consumption of media ... Choosing understanding over judgment ... Maria's spiritual routine: reading, writing and meditation ... Success as freedom from contentification and commercialization ...

Jeremy's new theory and the origins of life ... Wrestling with the second law of thermodynamics ... Self-organizing systems and self-replicating ones ... Natural selection as a special case of more general physical laws ... The role of ritual in Jeremy’s Jewish faith ... The laws of physics were written by people, not God ...