perception


  • Writer’s note: this is part three of a three-part essay. Click here for part two. In the previous two parts of the essay, I’ve discussed how our senses and mind could limit our ability to understand the world. I will be concluding this three-part essay by turning my focus to culture. First, a working definition of…

  • In 1758, the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus gave the name “Homo Sapiens” to our species. The term means “wise man” in Latin. We mostly stuck with the name, although there have been competing ones offered by various people in the years since. Linnaeus purportedly christened us with “wise” because of our ability to…

  • A unique aspect of human beings is our ability to use abstract and complex language. We can use language not only to communicate ideas but also to think and make sense of the world. For some of us, the latter exists as an internal monologue. Through language, we can name and label tangible objects, intangible…

  • Writer’s note: this was a difficult one to write, I scrapped an earlier draft completely because the more I wrote, the more I found myself having to account for too many considerations, which led to me feeling like I knew nothing about anything. That feeling prompted me to start over and adopt a structure that…