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

Street food vendor cooking skewers on a grill as people gather to eat and buy in a bustling outdoor setting.

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Comparative philosophy

A cure for individualism

It runs deeply through the Western outlook, hailed and condemned in equal measures. For a corrective, look to Confucius

Tim Connolly

Mosaic of a man in a red coat and wide brimmed hat holding a scythe with three workers in the background on a patterned brick wall.

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Human rights and justice

Levelling the world

Gerrard Winstanley led a small band of radicals whose vision of justice encompassed the globe and continues to inspire

Rowan Wilson

A rocky cliff with natural caves and green vegetation growing on the surface.

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Human evolution

The other Homo sapiens

We are just one branch of a diverse human family tree. Aside from Neanderthals, who were they – and why did we replace them?

Nick Longrich

Painting of a man on a rocky cliff overlooking a foggy mountainous landscape, with a walking stick in hand.

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Art

Out of the fog

It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?

Gianluca Didino

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

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Ethics

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

A murmuration of starlings forming a large, swirling shape in the early evening sky above silhouetted trees.

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Neuroscience

The entangled brain

The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony

Luiz Pessoa

A silhouetted figure sitting on a chair behind frosted glass partitions in a waiting room with overhead lights.

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Illness and disease

Permission to be ill

It took months for my functional neurological disorder to finally be diagnosed. It’s a condition that must be recognised

Kevin Aho

A colourful underground car park with numbered pillars and painted lanes with directional arrows.

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Cities

Cars beneath the ground

The explosion of automobiles shaped cities and lives. But an enduring problem remains: where to put them when they’re parked

Alfie Robinson

Abstract digital collage with classical statue overlayed by red lines, geometric shapes and layered images on a textured background.

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Stories and literature

Our narrative prison

The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?

Eliane Glaser

Ancient Chinese painting of a man under a tree with a trail of smoke coming from his mouth containing scenes of various figures, surrounded by miniature figures.

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Religion

Demonology

By turns benign and malign, powerful and vulnerable, earthbound and aerial, daimons across the world resemble one another

David Gordon White

A man looking up from the driver’s seat of a yellow vehicle with an open window and side mirror visible.

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Philosophy of language

Extraterrestrial tongues

Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages

Nikhil Mahant

Painting of a girl with a pearl earring in an ornate frame, viewed by three people in a gallery setting.

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Art

The ecstatic swoon

As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead

Robert D Zaretsky