Updated, 11:14 a.m.



Good morning on this bright Thursday.

Here’s something you might not expect to find at a farmers’ market or street parade: philosophy.

For nearly two years, Ian Olasov, a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the founder of Brooklyn Public Philosophers, has set up an “Ask-a-Philosopher” booth in places like Union Square. There, he and fellow philosophers help passers-by with questions tougher than how to get where they are going.

The most common question they get (not surprisingly, he said) concerns the meaning of life.

“But there are other questions of pressing popular concern that people might not recognize as philosophical,” said Mr. Olasov, 31. “‘What does it mean to say that race or gender are socially constructed?’ ‘What is money?’ ‘What makes Bitcoin money?’”

During this volatile time in our country, the conversation has also shifted considerably, he added.

“One thing that strikes me is how much public talk there is about how we can ‘know’ things or how the institutions that create and disseminate knowledge should be organized — like the press,” Mr. Olasov told us. “Or the role of experts in a democracy. Or what makes scientific institutions trustworthy?”