Quotes from Massimo Pigliucci

Conversely, we do not need innumerable friends: according to the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the human brain can only process approximately 150 interpersonal relations. This is known as Dunbar's number, and it's about the size of a small tribe.

Real ethical development is hard work and takes a long time.

For the Stoics, what distinguishes our species is the ability to reason and our high degree of sociality, from which it follows that we should spend our existence intent in using our mind to improve social living.

You cannot choose your family, but you may have to remind yourself that you love them, because you do (whether you like it or not).

Richard Dawkins lamented,9 we think that our kids need to have "fun, fun, fun" rather than, say, experience wonder or interest (they are not the same thing) when going to school or a museum.

Si tienes una fuerte aversión al fracaso, es posible que te sientas desgraciado si no consigues el ascenso, como al tratar de evitar la pobreza o la enfermedad. Pero, si tu deseo va encaminado correctamente a hacer el mejor trabajo posible, no puedes

Religious traditions do make more space for the supernatural, the mystical, and the spiritual, which is why faith is a core element of religion and rarely so in philosophy. It is also why religions can be at peace without definite answers and give answers to some questions that are unanswerable for philosophers (because they often defy logic or rationality).

we must require an agreement to the principle that there are no sacred cows. Anything and everything must be the subject of free inquiry and skeptical investigation. To allow otherwise, for practical or any other kind of reasons, is an intellectual travesty.

Natural and necessary desires were known as the "chief goods" by Philodemus of Gadara—who taught Epicurean philosophy in the first century. These include safety, a home, warm relations, food, water, health, and happiness.

De lo existente, unas cosas dependen de nosotros; otras no dependen de nosotros. De nosotros dependen el juicio, el impulso, el deseo, el rechazo y, en una palabra, cuanto es asunto nuestro. Y no dependen de nosotros el cuerpo, la hacienda, la reputación, los cargos y, en una palabra, cuanto no es asunto nuestro.» Epicteto, Manual de vida,

foundation of morality is to ... give up pretending to believe that or which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about this beyond the possibilities of knowledge." So wrote Thomas Henry Huxley, who thought-in the tradition of writers and philosophers like David Hume and Thomas Paine-that we have a moral duty to distinguish sense from nonsense.

British astronomer royal Richard Woolley, who in 1956 said, "All this talk about space travel is utter bilge, really."10 Yuri Gagarin was the first human to orbit the earth just five years later.

These ancient Atomists (who shared an awe for nature very similar to Carl Sagan's in our own time) developed a full cosmology based on the theory that all things are made of elementary particles and void.4 They rejected all supernatural opinions, posited an early theory of relativity, developed a "doctrine of innumerable worlds," and 2,300 years ago were speculating about extraterrestrial life based on their initial observations about the nature of things.

For Christians, the term "faith" designates not a formal assent to a belief, but rather an act of trust and commitment to a way of envisioning our world, and exploring its implications for thought and action.

The popularity of Einstein, believe it or not, is due to the influence of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (died fourth century BCE). Plato argued that the best life for a human is one of theoretical contemplation. People who study things like pure mathematics, theoretical physics, and philosophy have transcended attachment to the mundane affairs of the everyday world. They are better than the rest of us: more pure, almost godlike.

In a medical context, such an etiology can mean that some Hindus would welcome suffering rather than try to alleviate it. Palliative care, for example, may not be desirable if the Hindu believes that her suffering is the expression and manifestation of p?pa (demeritorious) karma. A Hindu may believe that relieving suffering may merely delay the manifestation of p?pa karma. The relief, then, would only be temporary and may even incur more p?pa and prolong or intensify the inescapable.

All choices and avoidances are relative to concrete circumstances. The answer to moral questions is always: carry out hedonic calculus. Measure the advantages versus the disadvantages. Since a pleasant life is the goal, we must avoid or defer instant gratification if it carries disadvantages greater than the pleasure it brings. We therefore sometimes choose disadvantages in the hopes of a greater, longer-term pleasure.

eat well, exercise daily, get plenty of sleep, and do well in school.

Suggested Readings Conze, Edward. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1951/ 2003. A short philosophical primer on the essence of Buddhism. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. The Art of Happiness: A Guide for Living. New York: Riverhead. 1998. A sales pitch for Buddhism as a way to be happy. Flanagan, Owen. The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized.

Broadly speaking, all of the philosophical and religious schools extant in India, other than the Charvaka (materialist skeptic) and Abrahamic ones, shared a belief in the mechanism of karma, that one's actions in earlier lives affected both one's rebirth as well as the events that are to occur in one's future lives.

Epictetus tells us that regret is a waste of our emotional energy. We cannot change the past—it is outside of our control. We can, and should, learn from it, but the only situations we can do something about are those happening here and now.

Your confidence lies not in the outcome,

Though the schools and traditions of Hinduism differ widely on the origins and precise function of these mechanisms of karma and sa?s?ra, they all agree that they exist. They also all share an interest in ending this seemingly endless cycle and this desire is their raison d'être.

Jains, in contrast, believe that karma is a physical particle that floats about and is attracted to sentient beings, depending on their actions and their intentions.