Philosophy and the Mind
Explore where psychological discoveries meet timeless philosophical questions. Learn why you think, feel, and react the way you do, and build the tools to examine your own mind with clarity.
Like Duolingo, but for Philosophy and the Mind. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
25 levels across 4 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Untangling Your Everyday Reactions; Testing What You Think You Know; Agency, Habits, and the Good Life; and The Architecture of the Inner Self. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Philosophy and the Mind
- External events don't inject feelings directly into you
- Your mind's intermediate interpretation determines which emotion flares up
- Changing your read of a situation changes your emotional reaction to it
- The brain creates quick, automatic interpretations to make sense of things instantly
- A thought can feel completely true without actually being accurate
- Strong emotional charge tricks the mind into treating a guess like an established fact
- Prefacing a painful thought with 'I notice I am having the thought...' separates you from the thought itself
- Viewing thoughts as mental events rather than literal reality dials down immediate distress
- Defusion gives you room to observe a thought rather than drowning in it
- Reframing searches for grounded alternative explanations that fit the known facts just as well
- Reframing is not forcing yourself to see everything as wonderful or denying genuine disappointment
- People judge themselves with far harsher double standards than they would ever apply to loved ones
- Asking 'What would I say if a close friend made this exact mistake?' instantly accesses balanced compassion and fair judgment
- The contrast between what we say to ourselves and what we tell a friend reveals our inner distortions
- Emotions are rapid evolutionary signals that prepare the body to react to threats or opportunities
- Experiencing an automatic emotional surge is distinct from choosing how to act on it
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Philosophy and the Mind the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Two coworkers are left off a team email. One feels furious, while the other feels relieved. What explains their different reactions?
Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.
Where Philosophy and the Mind takes you
- 1
Untangling Your Everyday Reactions
- Catching Your Automatic Thoughts
- Deciphering Emotions and Desires
- 2
Testing What You Think You Know
- Spotting Biases and Illusions of Certainty
- Navigating Moral Instincts and Ethical Choices
- 3
Agency, Habits, and the Good Life
- Agency, Willpower, and Personal Responsibility
- Crafting Meaning and Flourishing
- 4
The Architecture of the Inner Self
- The Divided Mind and Inner Conflict
- Consciousness and the Illusion of the 'I'
4 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Philosophy and the Mind is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Philosophy and the Mind today.
Download Tomo, search Philosophy and the Mind, and play your first lesson in under a minute.