Daily Reads by Articles Daily.

Contemporary Western dietary habits necessitate a fundamental shift, driven by both ethical imperatives and ecological exigencies. Fortunately, viable alternatives exist—nutritional paradigms that rival or surpass conventional consumption patterns in sustenance yet eschew the ethical and environmental repercussions intrinsic to industrial animal agriculture. However, the primary impediment remains the visceral revulsion these alternatives evoke in many individuals. My engagement with the psychology of disgust originated nearly two decades ago during my postgraduate studies, wherein I encountered a scholarly article detailing biotechnological advancements in cultivating meat ex vivo. The concept, currently denominated as ‘cultivated meat’ or ‘lab-grown meat,’ entails the propagation of myocyte tissues within bioreactors, facilitated by scaffolding and nutrient-rich media to fabricate consumable muscle fibers, coalescing into familiar forms such as hamburgers or even filet mignon. The no...

 Causal understanding is the cognitive faculty that enables individuals to conceptualize the interplay of factors that precipitate and modulate occurrences within their environment. This intrinsic cognitive architecture fosters the comprehension of creation, action, generation, and production, thereby elucidating the mechanisms by which the Moon governs tidal oscillations, pathogens induce physiological debilitation, tariffs recalibrate global commerce, inadvertent social infractions engender societal repercussions, and narrative events interlace in a seamless continuum of causality. It constitutes the substratum of inquiries articulated through "why," "how," "because," and "what if." Whether orchestrating contingencies for an imminent eventuality, ruminating over counterfactual contingencies, or envisaging the implausible (e.g., the experiential dimensions of autonomous flight), causal cognition operates as the pivotal mechanism underlying these...

The Oscar Wilde Temple, inaugurated in 2017 in the basement of the Church of the Village in Greenwich, New York, sanctifies Wilde as an icon of martyrdom. His effigy, a creamy statue clad in the unmistakable garb of a dandy, stands adorned with a sign inscribed with his Reading Gaol prison number, C.3.3. Behind him, a grandiose neo-Gothic stained-glass window of Jesus reinforces an implicit parallel, positioning Wilde within the paradigm of persecution. The temple walls further enshrine luminaries of LGBTQ history—Alan Turing, Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson—each immortalized as figures who suffered under the weight of societal condemnation. The artistic endeavor, masterminded by David McDermott and Peter McGough, encapsulates the narrative of Wilde’s tragic downfall and subsequent canonization as a secular saint within LGBTQ discourse. This rendering of Wilde as a flamboyant aesthete, an irreverent provocateur, and a literary genius who purportedly declared at customs, "I have not...

 The intricate relationship between the celestial hierarchy and corporeal experiences reveals an intriguing facet of medieval thought, one wherein the seemingly disparate realms of angelology and natural phenomena entwine. Maimonides, the eminent 12th-century philosopher and theologian, elucidated a notion that underscores this connection by suggesting that invisible forces responsible for movement could be explicated through divine agency manifesting via angels. Drawing upon the musings of a notable rabbi who identified an "angel put in charge of lust," Maimonides posited that this angelic designation corresponded to the force inducing orgasm, a view that renders such a force synonymous with an angelic presence. Such interpretations, though alien to modern physics, provided a framework for medieval thinkers grappling with enigmatic cosmological mechanics, wherein angels functioned as explanatory entities for physical movements. Prior to the articulation of gravitational theo...

When I engage in birdwatching, a familiar and rather vexing scenario often unfolds. Fellow birders will eagerly gesture towards the verdant tree canopy, enthusiastically pointing out a bird concealed amid the foliage. Despite my earnest attempts, binoculars poised and gaze scanning the treetops, I often perceive nothing more than the absence of a bird. This recurring experience underscores a profound enigma: how does the mind manage to discern something that is, in essence, nothing? For neuroscientists intrigued by consciousness, this paradox presents an alluring avenue of inquiry. Yet the challenge of probing the neural underpinnings of 'nothing' is self-evident. Fortunately, certain more palpable forms of absence provide a valuable framework for unraveling this cognitive puzzle. This is precisely why my doctoral research focused extensively on the perceptual mechanics surrounding the number zero. Zero's historical trajectory is as enigmatic as its cognitive significance. ...

In a world increasingly fragmented by conflicting ideologies and polarised narratives, there remains one striking exception to this pervasive discord: the near-universal acceptance, either tacit or overt, that respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nation-states is an inviolable cornerstone of the international community. The United Nations Charter, ratified in 1945, unequivocally enshrines this principle, obliging states to abstain from employing force as a means of violating the territorial sanctity or political autonomy of other states. Herein, the term ‘state’ is employed in its geopolitical sense, distinguishing it from the more ambiguous references to ‘nations’ or ‘countries’. Consequently, few would now openly endorse territorial annexation following military conquest as legitimate. Yet, while conquest undoubtedly persists, it is habitually cloaked in euphemistic justifications—whether through Russia’s tactic of instigating secessionist movements and subsequent...

Reading novels has long been deemed beneficial, a notion reinforced by studies like those from the New School for Social Research, which demonstrated that exposure to authors such as Don DeLillo and Lydia Davis enhances emotional cognition, or Emory University's research indicating heightened neural connectivity from literary engagement. A University of Sussex study further supports novels as potent stress relievers. This widespread belief renders the novel akin to a kale smoothie for the soul, perceived as inherently enriching regardless of content. While media such as violent video games or explicit films are often scrutinized for their potential corruption of impressionable minds, novels escape such censure. When they are described as 'dangerous,' it is typically in a metaphorical sense, often implying that those threatened by such works are themselves oppressive or intolerant, as British author Melvin Burgess contends regarding his controversial novel Junk. Historically...

 The extent to which individuals exercise their agency in shaping their lives should be left to their discretion, embracing a non-paternalistic paradigm that upholds the primacy of personal autonomy. As articulated by Martha Nussbaum in Women and Human Development (2000), the political objective should be confined to ensuring capabilities, allowing individuals the latitude to chart their own trajectories. She elucidates this principle by distinguishing between fasting and starvation, asserting that while a well-nourished person may voluntarily choose to fast, deprivation induced by systemic inequities constitutes a categorical violation of human dignity. The Capability Approach (CA), a theoretical framework jointly cultivated by Nussbaum and the distinguished economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, emerged as a response to conventional metrics of societal well-being. Their collaboration, underpinned by an intellectual and romantic alliance, sought to transcend the reductive emphasi...

In the year 1924, the distinguished French poet and literary theorist André Breton disseminated his seminal Surrealist Manifesto, a document of considerable cultural significance that articulated the foundational principles of an artistic movement predicated upon the liberation of creative expression from the confines of rationalism. This manifesto, conceived in direct response to the cataclysmic devastation wrought by the First World War, sought to engender an aesthetic paradigm that privileged the efflorescence of the unconscious over the regimentations of reason, thereby repudiating the epistemological strictures that had hitherto governed artistic production. Through an ideological lens suffused with the tenets of Freudian psychoanalysis, Breton envisaged a mode of artistic inquiry that would transcend conventional cognition, facilitating the unmediated articulation of subconscious reveries and latent desires. In commemoration of the centenary of this manifesto, the Museum of Moder...

 How does it feel to be highly sensitive? Had I encountered the question without the extensive knowledge I now possess, I would have been oblivious, convinced that I was not. Yet, in 1991, after a therapist to whom I was referred for my perceived "overreaction" to a medical procedure labeled me as such, I embarked on a profound investigation into what precisely this designation entailed. What I unearthed through years of meticulous study is that high sensitivity is, above all, an intrinsic cognitive disposition marked by an exceptional depth of processing. This predisposition renders individuals like me profoundly introspective, inventive, and naturally inclined toward both scientific inquiry and spiritual contemplation. With an almost automatic capacity for empathy—at times excessive—we are prone to tears, attuned to nuances unnoticed by many: the subtleties of birdsong, the delicate variations of flora, the interplay of light in a room, or even the inconspicuous repositioni...

 I discerned my daughter’s auditory perception not merely from her love for melodies but from her impeccable sense of rhythm. She wielded her fists through the air with metronomic precision, her doughy heel striking the ground in synchrony with the downbeat. I had long renounced the yoke of obsessive milestone-tracking, previously ensnared by my undue fixation on her inability to roll within the prescribed developmental window. Consequently, when she failed to articulate consonants at the designated time, I made a conscious decision to disregard it. It never occurred to me that deafness might not be an absolute binary but a nuanced spectrum where specific vibrations and frequencies—perhaps the rhythmic cadence of a Wiggles song—could be apprehended, whereas subtler speech sounds might elude her grasp. It was only a few months after her first birthday that we discovered our Botticellian cherub had mild hearing impairment, and within two years, she had lost nearly all residual audito...

In the contemporary discourse on existential meaning, a prevalent dichotomy posits that disbelief in deities, such as those depicted in the Bible or the Quran, necessitates an acceptance of a purposeless cosmos. This binary framework often mirrors other ideological bifurcations, such as the assumption that opposition to Soviet communism implies endorsement of American-style capitalism, thereby overlooking the spectrum of political ideologies that exist beyond these poles. Similarly, the debate between staunch religious adherence and secular atheism often neglects intermediary perspectives. The question arises: does one align with the empirical rationalism of Richard Dawkins or the theological doctrines of the Pope? Over an extended period, I have discerned that both paradigms exhibit explanatory deficiencies concerning the nature of reality. In my treatise, "Why? The Purpose of the Universe" (2023), I delve into the oft-overlooked median between theism and atheism. My upbring...

 My psychoanalyst’s consulting room was an austere expanse of brown functionality, devoid of superfluity, its walls bereft of ornament save for a single framed reproduction of Claude Monet’s The Poppy Field near Argenteuil (1873). This pastoral scene, once the embodiment of Impressionist radicalism, had, through overexposure and mass reproduction, been reduced to an anodyne visual presence, a pacifying artifact in an environment designed for introspection. A woman, attired in the elegant garb of the 19th century, traverses the verdant meadow, a parasol delicately poised in her grasp. Yet, at that juncture, my melancholic disposition transfigured its palette, casting upon it a spectral gloom; where others discern cerulean expanses, I perceived only a pall of despondency. Positioned beyond my immediate field of vision, occupying my analyst’s eyeline rather than my own, its spectral presence asserted itself only as I approached the couch, though its image lingered persistently in the...

 I first encountered Byung-Chul Han towards the twilight of the preceding decade, in the course of composing a treatise on the dichotomous nature of idleness, encompassing both its latent joys and intrinsic afflictions. My preliminary forays into the omnipresent ethos of ceaseless labor and overstimulation promptly unearthed Han’s seminal work, The Burnout Society , initially promulgated in the German tongue in the year 2010. The perspicacity with which Han delineates the neoliberal paradigm’s inexorable trajectory towards enervation resonated with that rare amalgam of appreciation and vexation that one experiences upon discerning, in another’s ruminations, the fully crystallized articulation of one’s own nascent, incoate suspicions. At the crux of Han’s conceptualization of the burnout society ( Müdigkeitsgesellschaft ) lies a novel schema of subjugation. Whereas the proletarian of the industrial epoch assimilated the compulsion to toil more assiduously as a function of superegoic...