This blog post delves into the historical debate over whether nebulae are stellar birthplaces or other galaxies beyond our own, and details the astronomical discoveries that resolved this question. The size of the universe has long been a subject of human fascination. To determine it, astronomers sought to measure the distances to distant stars. In the late 18th century, Herschel made the...
This blog post deeply examines the philosophical reasons and significance behind Kant’s thorough exclusion of human contingency—such as emotions, inclinations, and social conditions—in establishing universal morality. In modern Western ethics, Kant’s moral philosophy and Hegel’s ethical theory are represented by the concepts of morality and humanity, respectively, and...
This blog post examines why financial crises are difficult to explain with a single cause. It analyzes how self-fulfilling expectations, risk-seeking behavior, bank runs, and excessive overheating become intricately intertwined to trigger crises. Despite extensive research on past financial crises, consensus on their causes often remains elusive. This stems partly from the complex...
This blog post examines why republicanism rejects arbitrary rule and makes the common good its core value. It also explores how civic virtue and constitutional order enable self-governance. Republicanism is an ideology that seeks to realize self-governance by excluding rule by arbitrary power in communal life, based on citizens’ political participation in pursuit of the common good...
This blog post examines how investigative reporting shapes preconceptions about trials and explores where freedom of expression and the defendant’s right to due process conflict, seeking ways to achieve harmony. Most media coverage of criminal cases relies on information obtained from investigative agencies and tends to focus on the investigative phase before indictment...
This blog post examines various philosophical positions on the objectivity and subjectivity of good, deeply exploring whether good can be established independently of human desires. In ethics, various issues arise concerning goodness (善, good). What is goodness? Can goodness be equated with pleasure? How does goodness relate to moral rightness or justice? Among these, one of the long...
This blog post examines the institutional, technological, geological, and investment environment characteristics that enabled the United States to secure overwhelming dominance in shale gas development, providing an in-depth analysis of how the global energy landscape is being reshaped. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 18th century, marked a decisive turning...
This blog post examines, based on the theory of suboptimality, the structural distortions that occur when Pareto optimality conditions are only partially satisfied, and why a greater number of conditions does not always guarantee a more efficient outcome. To reach the most efficient resource allocation state—the Pareto optimal state—all optimal conditions must be satisfied simultaneously...
This blog post calmly examines the philosophical basis and meaning behind why even murder without any pain is morally problematic, focusing on classical utilitarianism, preference utilitarianism, and the autonomy principle. A person refers to a rational being with self-awareness, such as humans or primates. These beings possess the capacity for autonomous judgment and can recognize that...
This blog post examines why hedonism, extending beyond mere sensory pleasure, remains a core debate in contemporary ethics, delving deeply into the differences between Bentham and Mill’s philosophies. Hedonism is an ethical theory asserting that all pleasure has value in itself and that actions producing the greatest pleasure—achieved by increasing pleasure and decreasing pain—are...