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Majlis of Pursuit
AR

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Pick a thread and pull.

Every experience starts from a question and ends with you deciding what you think.

Journeys

Short paths through related questions. Each experience you finish fills a seat in the circle.

20 experiences

A hand hesitating above a wallet lying on a rain-wet street at night
Illustration
Thought experimentEthics10 min

Would you do the right thing if nobody would ever know?

A thought experiment in five tests. Each one removes a reason to behave well — witnesses, reputation, punishment — until only one question is left: why do you do what you do?

Begin · Would You Do the Right Thing If Nobody Knew?
A man in a dark suit stands with his hand on a front door's handle, seen against frosted glass, while a hand of someone hiding rests on the back of a sofa in the foreground
Illustration
InvestigationPhilosophy11 min

Is it wrong to lie to save someone's life?

Begin · What Makes an Action Good?
A cloth merchant unfolds a stained linen bolt while a customer waits at his stall
Illustration
Branching scenarioEthics10 min

Would you tell a customer about a flaw they'll never notice?

Begin · The Merchant's Dilemma
Two folios from a 10th-century Qur'an manuscript, with Kufic script and gilded decoration
10th-century Qur'an manuscript · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0
InvestigationHistory12 min

How does a text survive 1,400 years?

Begin · How Does a Text Survive 1,400 Years?
Hands arranging light and dark wooden tiles into a square on a desk beside a brass compass, a reed pen and geometric sketches, lit by lamplight through a lattice window
Illustration
InvestigationScience & mathematics11 min

How do you find a number you don't know?

Begin · The Mystery of Algebra
The opening page of a 13th-century Latin manuscript of Ptolemy's Almagest, with an enthroned Ptolemy in a gold and blue initial
Almagest, Latin manuscript, Paris, 13th c. · BnF Latin 16200, f. 1 · Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF · Public domain (cropped)
InvestigationHistory11 min

What happens to an idea when it changes language?

Begin · When Knowledge Traveled the World
A solitary observer watches a huge, cratered full Moon rise above a city of rooftops at dusk
Illustration
Thought experimentScience & mathematics10 min

Why does the Moon look bigger near the horizon?

Begin · Can You Trust What Your Eyes See?
The Darb-e Imam Shrine in Isfahan, with geometric tilework around its arched entrance
Darb-e Imam Shrine, Isfahan · Ahmad3128 · 2023 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
InvestigationScience & mathematics10 min

How do you draw a pattern that never quite repeats?

Begin · The Mathematics Hidden in Art
A weary, ragged stranger sits on city steps at dusk beside a worn bag while townspeople with baskets of bread walk past
Illustration
InvestigationEthics11 min

What do you owe to strangers in your own city?

Begin · What Makes a Society Just?
The Mamluk stone facade, dome, and minaret of the Qalawun complex in Cairo
Qalawun complex, Cairo · Marsupium · 2024 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
InvestigationHistory11 min

Who paid for your care in a 13th-century hospital?

Begin · The Hospital Before the Modern Hospital
A farmer seen from behind scatters seed by hand across a tilled field at dawn, under a sky of rain clouds on one side and golden light on the other
Illustration
Thought experimentPhilosophy11 min

If you cannot control the outcome, what responsibility do you have for your choices?

Begin · Are You Really in Control of Your Life?
A man seen from behind leans on the rim of a stone well in a sunlit courtyard, while beyond the low wall a woman holding an empty clay jar waits in the lane
Illustration
InvestigationEthics11 min

Does having the right to own something mean you have the right to use it however you want?

Begin · What Do You Actually Own?
A man seen from behind sets a bundle of money and a sheet of paper on a shop counter, while the shopkeeper opposite folds his arms and looks down
Illustration
InvestigationEthics9 min

If someone has done something terrible, can they genuinely become a different person?

Begin · Can You Change Who You Are?
A person kneels at the edge of a shallow mountain stream, carefully placing flat stones to rebuild a channel wall
Illustration
Thought experimentPsychology8 min

When does enduring become strength, and when does it become an excuse for inaction?

Begin · Is Patience a Form of Strength?
A wooden balance scale on a worn table in window light: a heap of small pebbles in one pan, a single large stone in the other, and a pair of resting hands at the table's edge
Illustration
Branching scenarioEthics9 min

Is a decision legitimate just because the majority supports it?

Begin · How Should We Make Decisions Together?
A craftsperson's weathered hands plane a wooden plank in a workshop at dusk, while through the window a neighbouring house glows warmly with a lit table
Illustration
InvestigationPhilosophy8 min

What if a good life is not the same as a comfortable life?

Begin · Is There More to Life Than Being Happy?
The opening pages of a 16th-century endowment charter (waqfiyya) in Arabic script, with a blue and gold illuminated headpiece
Endowment charter (waqfiyya) of Haseki Hürrem Sultan, Istanbul, 1556–57 · Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum 2192 · Public domain (cropped)
InvestigationHistory9 min

What can you build today that will keep helping people centuries from now?

Begin · What If Your Good Deeds Outlive You?
A young man holding a travel bag and a folded letter looks toward a lamplit doorway, while an elderly man with a cane sits in an armchair in the next room
Illustration
Thought experimentPhilosophy8 min

If your life were judged by what truly mattered, what would count?

Begin · What Does It Mean to Live a Good Life?
In a busy market lane, one hand openly drops a coin into a brass collection box while onlookers watch; on the right, another hand quietly slips a banknote into a stranger's bag
Illustration
Thought experimentEthics8 min

If nobody could ever know what you did, would you still do the right thing?

Begin · Can You Be a Good Person Without Anyone Knowing?
Two men sit at opposite ends of a park bench with a white chalk line between them; one slides a small steel cup of tea across the line toward the other
Illustration
InvestigationEthics9 min

Can you disagree deeply with someone and still owe them fairness, dignity, and kindness?

Begin · What Do We Owe to People Who Are Different From Us?