How can the human mind think about objects outside itself? How is it possible to talk about things that don’t even exist? This week, we’re thinking about reference—specifically, an “opinionated” theory of reference by our dear departed friend, longtime Philosophy Talk host Ken Taylor.
For this month's puzzle, I'm focusing on the human ability to produce and consume fiction. Why do creatures evolved to survive in a harsh reality spend so much time, energy, and effort doing this? And why do we argue with one another about what “really” happened in these various fictional worlds?
不经别人同意就给别人画像是不对的吗?《着火的女人的肖像》为一位18世纪的肖像艺术家呈现了这种伦理困境。这部电影在很多层面上都很深入，但最重要的一个层面是它如何让我们思考肖像、隐私和同意。
Pictures are so ubiquitous they often fade into the background of conscious experience. But there’s a special magic to pictures. When you see one, you don’t only see some colors on a surface, some marks jumbled together here and there; you see things—maybe bottles, people, or books—in the picture.