Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning, according to our new study published in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues such as curiosity and open-mindedness. Philosophers have long claimed that studying philosophy sharpens one's mind. What sets philosophy apart from other fields is that it is not so much a body of knowledge as an activity ' a form of inquiry. Doing philosophy involves trying to answer fundamental questions about humanity and the world we live in and subjecting proposed answers to critical scrutiny: constructing logical arguments, drawing subtle distinctions and following ideas to their ultimate ' often surprising ' conclusions. Students who major in philosophy perform very well on tests such as the Graduate Record Examination and Law School Admission Test. Studies, including our own, have found that people who have studied philosophy are, on average, more reflective and more open-minded than those who haven't. Yet this doesn't necessarily show that studying philosophy makes people better thinkers. Philosophy may just attract good thinkers....

When a woman's clothes constrict her movement, squeezing her into unforgiving shapes, or her exercise regime is a punishing ordeal meant to winnow her down to the smallest possible size, the result is all too often an alienation from her body. This week, we published two book reviews that offer a different way to think about the physical self'one that replaces an obsession over surface appeal with an emphasis on functionality. My colleague Julie Beck's essay on Casey Johnston's new ode to weight lifting argues for seeing your body as a working object, rather than an enemy to be subdued; so does Julia Turner's article about Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson's new biography of the fashion designer Claire McCardell. This philosophy might seem, to some, like wishful thinking: Narrow standards of beauty, whether they dictate body size or one's fashion sense, remain powerful in many settings. But Johnston's memoir of her journey toward strength training describes how, as she built muscle, she also began rejecting a deeply ingrained internal voice warning her against gaining a single pound. Beck, who describes trading in punishing turns on the elliptical for lifting, writes that the decision transformed her relationship to her body. As she notes, lifting 'builds up instead of whittling away; it favors function over aesthetics'; strength training has changed the way she walks, erased nagging pains, and allowed her to lift her carry-on into the overhead bin on airplanes with ease....

Is your AI delivering adequate returns' In this thought-provoking conversation, MIT Sloan's Michael Schrage and MIT SMR's David Kiron reveal why philosophy ' not just technology ' determines whether your AI investments are poised to create genuine business value. Ethics isn't the only philosophical issue that organizations need to grapple with when developing and deploying AI. In fact, ethics and 'responsible AI' are only a small part of the philosophical perspectives informing and guiding AI's production, utility, and use. In this insightful video, MIT Sloan's Michael Schrage and MIT Sloan Management Review's David Kiron explain why leaders need to rigorously cultivate philosophical conversation if they want to realize strong returns and competitive advantage from their organizations' generative and predictive AI investments. Building on a recent popular article they coauthored, Schrage and Kiron break down how philosophical frameworks shape what AI systems prioritize and produce. They also explain the critical concepts of teleology (purpose), epistemology (knowledge), and ontology (categorization), and detail how thinking through these concepts can temper the strategic risks that come from giving AI a more strategic role in the enterprise....

In his day, the 18th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was what we would call a 'celebrity academic,' enjoying top university posts and a wide readership for his books. This might explain some of the hostility that Hegel faced from his contemporaries. Arthur Schopenhauer called his writing the work of a 'clumsy charlatan,' which rendered readers 'incapable of reflection, coarse and bewildered.' His compatriot Friedrich Nietzsche snorted that an education based on 'Hegelian craniums' is 'terrible and destructive.' Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were largely overlooked during their lifetimes, so professional jealousy no doubt accounted for some of this. But deep intellectual differences also underpinned their animus. Whereas Hegel's critics largely promoted individualism, the famous author of The Phenomenology of the Spirit taught that fitting into society is generally the best path to a good life. For an individualist like me'a bit Nietzschean in worldview'Hegel's approach might appear unsympathetic. But I have been reconsidering Hegel, and now I think that understanding his arguments for a more communitarian attitude might offer us a nudge toward greater happiness'one we didn't even know we needed....