In this blog post, we’ll explore why living by community norms ultimately benefits individuals in the long run, using examples from group activities and everyday life. Throughout our lives, we find ourselves at a crossroads of choice every moment. Sometimes we make the choice that is most advantageous to ourselves, regardless of others, and other times we make a conscientious choice even...
This article explains the causes of altruistic behavior by comparing the limitations of various hypotheses, with a particular focus on the “birds of a feather flock together” hypothesis. Altruistic behavior refers to acts of helping others even at the cost of personal loss. Common sense tells us that voluntarily engaging in actions that result in a loss is difficult to comprehend. So why...
In this blog post, we’ll explore why we should live altruistically and righteously—even if it means suffering a loss—through the lens of group selection theory and the logic of survival in human society. From childhood, we’ve often heard adults say, “My child, you must live a good life!” Without ever questioning why we should live “good”—that is, righteously—most of us have come to hold...
In this blog post, we will explore the reasons why we should prioritize long-term social benefits over short-term gains and discuss the importance of living ethically. Humans live in societies. Because we live alongside diverse others, we establish laws and rules that we must all follow, allowing us to coexist without harming one another. These laws and rules form the essential foundation...
Market failure can arise from the inefficient management of public goods and common-pool resources. We will explore effective policies and solutions to prevent this. Most goods are allocated according to market principles, whereby consumers pay a price and suppliers receive that payment. While this allocation process generally ensures that resources are efficiently distributed through the...
In this blog post, we examine why medieval and Renaissance physicians did not question Galen’s physiology. We explore the reasons why his theories maintained their authority for so long. From the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, the undisputed authority in the field of physiology was Claudius Galenus, who systematized Greek medicine around the 2nd century. According to Claudius...
In this blog post, we examine the balance we must strike between our humanitarian responsibility to take in Syrian refugees and the safety of our own citizens, as well as the economic burden this entails. Long ago, the suffering caused by dictatorship in Syria erupted into civil war. To make matters worse, the country became a primary target of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant...
In this blog post, we take an intriguing look at the possibility of time travel and predicting the future from the perspectives of scientific theory and human free will. Most people have probably imagined time travel at least once during their childhood. We used to lose ourselves in a world of endless imagination, asking questions like, “I want to go back in time and see dinosaurs in...
In this blog post, we’ll analyze the impact of ballast water on the marine ecosystem, explore the problems caused by the introduction of invasive species, and examine ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) designed to address these issues. Ms. K, a Korean woman, enjoys eating Chilean grapes that are high in sugar content and can be eaten with the skin on. Today, as always, she orders...
In this blog post, we examine whether the ban on publishing poll results during the election period is a legitimate measure to ensure the fairness of elections or a form of suppression that infringes on the public’s right to know. The issue of banning the publication of opinion poll results during election periods is emerging as a major social controversy. This is because arguments that...