As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty.

I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books.

Like the early days of the Internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee.

No matter how inured you get to atrocities, you're still always stunned and shocked by how cruel and wasteful Homo sapiens can be.

But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses.

If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks.

Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity - which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.