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Essays

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

Photo of a large crowd celebrating outdoors with a person waving a South African flag energetically in the foreground.

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Political philosophy

A right to exist?

Since states are founded on violence and expulsion, their existence is always bound up in thorny questions about justice

Andrew F March

Illustration of hands typing on a keyboard with handwritten notes and a man in a sequence of frames.

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Computing and artificial intelligence

Chatbots of the dead

We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?

Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story

Photo of fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

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Human evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

A woman walking on a dimly lit street pavement at night with a parked scooter and two men walking in the background, one appearing to follow her; the woman looks downcast, the man appears to be smiling.

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Human rights and justice

Did you think you were safe?

When I moved to India for work, I found that rape was a feature of the country, as deeply embedded as caste

Evelyn Fok

A monochrome painting of a moonlit lake scene with a mountain silhouette and figures on a pier under a crescent moon.

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Deep time

The bookends of time

Nothing lasts forever: not humanity, not Earth, not the Universe. But finitude confers an indelible meaning to our lives

Thomas Moynihan

Photo of a modern bathroom with circular tiled walls and surfaces, two sinks, mirrors and red hand dryers reflected in the mirrors.

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Mathematics

Beyond causality

In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics

Gordon Gillespie

Black-and-white photo of the Moon’s surface with craters, with a distant Earth visible on the horizon in space.

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Space exploration

How the Moon became a place

For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination

Danny Robb

Black-and-white photo of two women preening a toddler who is sitting on a wall and sucking dummy, with a brick house and a washing line in the background.

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Thinkers and theories

So many unmarried men

For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors

Ellie Robson

Six children with troubled faces sitting and lying on colourful blankets inside a dimly lit room with an earthen wall.

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Poverty and development

Poverty is not permanent

By understanding the pernicious myths surrounding poverty, we can make progress towards a lofty goal: dignity for all

Anirudh Krishna & Dirk Philipsen

Vintage film poster with illustrated women underwater surrounded by bubbles text reads “Primitive and Exciting”.

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Public health

A very American fear

Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?

Rebecca L Davis

Medieval painting of a man in a cosmic circle with zodiac symbols surrounded by blue and red patterns.

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History of science

The birth of naturalism

The modern era is often seen as the triumph of science over supernaturalism. But what really happened is far more interesting

Peter Harrison

Aerial black-and-white photo of a town surrounded by rolling hills and agricultural terraces.

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Nations and empires

Passion and Palestine

More than any other conflict, Israel/Palestine has provoked extraordinarily fervent emotion throughout the world. Why?

Derek Jonathan Penslar