About the Speaker:

Paul Bloom studies our common-sense understanding of the world -- how we know what we know, why we like what we like.

About This Talk:

Why do we like an original painting better than a forgery? Psychologist Paul Bloom argues that human beings are essentialists -- that our beliefs about the history of an object change how we experience it, not simply as an illusion, but as a deep feature of what pleasure (and pain) is.