The two Chomskys
The US military’s greatest enemy worked in an institution saturated with military funding. How did it shape his thought?
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Love and friendship
Loved, yet lonely
You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?
Kaitlyn Creasy
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Logic and probability
The patterns of reality
Some have thought that logic will one day be completed and all its problems solved. Now we know it is an endless task
Timothy Williamson
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Philosophy of mind
What is it like to be a crab?
Consciousness science should move past a focus on complex mammalian brains to study the behaviour of ‘simpler’ animals
Kristin Andrews
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Metaphysics
Purposeful universe
Neither atheism nor theism adequately explains reality. That is why we must consider the middle ground between the two
Philip Goff
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History of science
The rights of the dead
From the Irish Giant to the Ancient One, is it ever ethical for scientists and museums to study bodies without permission?
Anita Guerrini
video
Religion
Hear from blasphemes, sceptics and free-thinkers in this ‘tour of medieval unbelief’
52 minutes
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Comparative philosophy
Forging philosophy
A 17th-century classic of Ethiopian philosophy might be a fake. Does it matter, or is that just how philosophy works?
Jonathan Egid
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
The ancient Hawaiian myth that sparked a modern ecological breakthrough
10 minutes
video
Music
‘Dun dun dun duuun!’ Why Beethoven’s Fifth sticks in the head and stirs the heart
5 minutes
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Stories and literature
Citizens
Devon, 1970s: I’m a rector’s son, hanging out with Boz the biker. My life is about to open up – what does it promise for him?
Tim Pears
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Anthropology
A glimpse of the world’s heart
I wanted to visit Colombia’s sacred mountains. But there are some places we cannot go – and some things we cannot know
Nick Hunt
video
Art
The irreverent duo who thumbed their noses at the Soviet Union and the US art world
11 minutes
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Space exploration
The skyhook solution
Space junk surrounds Earth, posing a dangerous threat. But there is a way to turn the debris into opportunity
Angelos Alfatzis
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A scientist’s poor eyesight helped fuel a revolution in computer ‘vision’
9 minutes
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Ageing and death
Witness the pain
When loved ones are traumatically lost, bereaved families become accidental activists by turning grief into grievance
Chris Bobel
video
Thinkers and theories
Henri Bergson on why the existence of things precedes their possibility
3 minutes
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Race and ethnicity
Battling implicit bias
Training is a cheap solution to a hard problem. It is the systems that allow for biased behaviour that need to change
Jeffrey To
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Ethics
Ethics has no foundation
Ethical values can be both objective and knowable – torture really is wrong – yet not need any foundation outside themselves
Andrew Sepielli
video
Ageing and death
Demystifying death – a palliative care specialist’s practical guide to life’s end
4 minutes
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Economics
Going cashless
It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok
Brett Scott
video
Future of technology
Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system
6 minutes
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Metaphysics
Both one and yet distinct
Being a twin (as our author knows) cracks open our ideas of the perfectly bounded self and might liberate us all
Helena de Bres
video
Metaphysics
Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them
8 minutes
essay
Philosophy of mind
What is it like to be a crab?
Consciousness science should move past a focus on complex mammalian brains to study the behaviour of ‘simpler’ animals
Kristin Andrews
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Psychosis and psychedelics
In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis
Phoebe Friesen
video
Fairness and equality
A tragicomic account of how the Los Angeles Police Department blew up a city block
19 minutes
essay
Metaphysics
Purposeful universe
Neither atheism nor theism adequately explains reality. That is why we must consider the middle ground between the two
Philip Goff
video
Stories and literature
A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life
6 minutes