Philosophy Science Psychology Society Culture

DonateNewsletterSIGN IN

Nigel Warburton

Consultant Editor and Interviewer, Aeon+Psyche

Nigel is a writer, philosopher and podcaster. He is interviewer for the popular Philosophy Bites podcast. His books include A Little History of Philosophy, The Art Question and Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction. Nigel is on Twitter @philosophybites.

See Nigel Warburton’s profile on Psyche

Website

X (Formerly Twitter)

Written by Nigel Warburton

A lone person standing in front of a row of tanks on a wide city street with a bus in the background.

essayArt

Moments of depth

Stuart Franklin has photographed conflict, nature and people. He discusses what makes a memorable image

Stuart Franklin & Nigel Warburton

A cosy room with a patterned couch covered in colourful rugs and cushions, next to shelves of books and sculptures.

ideaWellbeing

Is philosophy therapy, or is it simply a search for truth?

Nigel Warburton & Jules Evans

A café with wax figures of men seated at tables. A bar at the back has more figures, all in a vintage setting.

essayHistory of ideas

Talk with me

Philosophy should be conversation, not dogma – face-to-face talk about our place in the cosmos and how we should live

Nigel Warburton

People queuing outside a crumbled building amid rubble under a clear sky, showcasing a post-disaster scene in a hot country.

essayCosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitans

It’s not just me, you and everyone we know. Citizens of the world have moral obligations to a wider circle of humanity

Nigel Warburton

Edited by Nigel Warburton

Painting of a group gathered around an orrery, with expressions of curiosity and wonder illuminated by its light.

essayArt

In the glow of the candle

Joseph Wright of Derby put science at the centre of his art. Eclipsed in his lifetime, his work still burns with radical ideas

Charlotte Mullins

A scientist standing a large metal tunnel with hexagonal gold mirrors at the end of it.

essayCosmology

The Big Bang’s big gaps

The current theory for the origin of the Universe is remarkably successful yet full of explanatory holes. Expect surprises

Jim Baggott

Ancient Chinese painting of a scholar in robes resting on a mat outdoors by cliffs and sparse vegetation on brown silk canvas.

essayMetaphysics

Essence is fluttering

As Zhuangzi saw, there is no immutably true self. Instead our identity is as dynamic and alive as a butterfly in flight

Alexander Douglas

A lively classroom with smiling people, one person standing while holding a paper, posters in the background.

essayKnowledge

Socrates would be pleased

With a class of college students and inmates, teaching philosophy in prison is a rowdy, honest and hopeful provocation

Jay Miller

Black and white photo of a thoughtful woman and two children, one holding a crying baby, indoors near wooden doors.

essayEthics

Why love matters most

For Iris Murdoch, morality is not about duties and rules but stopping our ego fantasies and attending to others with love

Cathy Mason

Abstract digital art with geometric shapes in various colours, forming the shape of a person’s head and shoulders, featuring black glasses in the centre.

essayEthics

The incompleteness of ethics

Many hope that AI will discover ethical truths. But as Gödel shows, deciding what is right will always be our burden

Elad Uzan

A stork and chicks in a nest on a metal pylon above a grassy landscape with a river in the background.

essayAnimals and humans

To build a nest

Throughout the animal kingdom, the parents of newborns must strive to create snug sanctuaries in a hazardous world

Helen Jukes

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Photo of a rustic stone house with a shaded garden path lined with lush greenery and flowering plants under a clear blue sky.

essayHistory of ideas

From scattered traces

How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought

Luka Boršić

Black and white photo of a group of men playing musical instruments and sitting in a wooden room.

essayMusic

The beat of goombay

Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music

Salwa Halloway

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting at a kitchen table appearing deep in thought or conversation.

essayVirtues and vices

Awkward silences

What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other

Rebecca Roache

People collecting water from a makeshift station in a camp, surrounded by orange netting and tents in the background.

essayEthics

Moral refuge

You can believe in border control yet protect those fleeing to safety. So what is our ethical obligation to refugees?

Bradley Hillier-Smith