Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Appearance and Reality

The Art of World-Making

Mikhail Epstein sees a bright future for metaphysics in the hi-tech age.

“Numerous universes might have been botched and bungled throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out; much labor lost, many fruitless trials made, and a slow but continual improvement carried out during infinite ages in the art of world-making.”

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)

Never before have industry and technology, or even business and advertising, been as loaded with metaphysics as they are today. While in New York City I noticed the following signs:

‘Be the master of your destiny. Likewise, your bill payments.’
‘Dreaming is good for the soul.

…