Essays

Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

Photo of a truck on a narrow bridge with people balancing and pushing it under a clear sky.

essayHuman evolution

How selfish are we?

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition

Jonathan R Goodman

A person in a garden facing a traditional Japanese building with a curved roof across a pond, surrounded by trees and bushes.

essayComparative philosophy

Between being and emptiness

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature

Takeshi Morisato

essayNeuroscience

Can you rewire your brain?

The metaphor of rewiring offers an ideal of engineered precision. But the brain is more like a forest than a circuit board

Peter Lukacs

Two children on a bike passing a group of people standing outside a large metal gate with buildings in the background.

essayWork

Victims and villains

In Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, workers are being enslaved but the boundary between victim and perpetrator is blurred

Ivan Franceschini & Ling Li

Two boys in colourful clothes standing beside a large painting of an elderly woman in a gold frame.

essayEconomics

Is inherited wealth bad?

Despite associations with the idle rich, the fact that inheritances are rising is a sign of a healthy, growing economy

Daniel Waldenström

Engraving showing a view of the Portuguese town of Cacheo with a fort, trees and sailing ships on a river.

essayGlobal history

A lesson in coexistence

The 17th-century town Cacheu was a hub of West African and European cultures, languages and beliefs (and run by women)

Toby Green

A baseball with red stitching on a black background partially lit from the top left corner.

essayPhysics

Playing in flatland

Physicists believe a third class of particles – anyons – could exist, but only in 2D. What kind of existence is that?

Elay Shech

Photo of two silhouettes walking by fountains with bokeh effect in the foreground, Arc de Triomphe in the background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Computers can’t surprise

As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer

Richard Beard

Three people draped in German flags standing in a town square during a gathering, with a rainbow in the cloudy sky.

essayAnthropology

Dreams of the far Right

Young Europeans join far-Right movements less out of grievance than out of a profound yearning to believe and belong

Agnieszka Pasieka

Black-and-white photo of a man viewing framed artworks on a wall in an exhibition setting.

essayHistory of science

A light from the periphery

The life of Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose illuminates how scientific genius can emerge from the most unexpected quarters

Somaditya (Soma) Banerjee

Sepia-toned photo of a man addressing a crowd of strikers outside a brick building wearing early 20th-century attire.

essayPolitics and government

Our unfinished republics

Economic republicanism shows us how to achieve authentic freedom: citizens require economic as well as political power

Sean Irving

essayHistory of ideas

The shape of time

In the 19th century, the linear idea of time became dominant, forever changing how those in the West experience the world

Emily Thomas