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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
A smiling elderly man in a cluttered electronics shop with various gadgets and boxes surrounding him.

essay

Home

The joy of clutter

The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less’

Matt Alt

Black and white photo of a teenage girl with dark hair smoking, eyes closed, with a blurred outdoor background.

video

Meaning and the good life

Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world

10 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a woman in a lab coat examining maize at a table, baskets of maize to the side, in a laboratory.

essay

Virtues and vices

Against humility

Intellectual humility has recently been hailed as the key to thinking well. The story of Barbara McClintock proves otherwise

Rachel Fraser

Photo of colourful light reflections on a dark tiled floor, possibly from a stained glass window in a dimly lit interior space.

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Values and beliefs

My leap across the chasm

After years of debate and contemplation, I’ve come to think a heretical form of Christianity might be true. Here’s why

Philip Goff

Black and white photo of a vintage race car numbered 6 speeding past blurred spectators emphasising motion and early motor racing.

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History of science

Clock time contra lived time

Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein fundamentally disagreed about the nature of time and how it can be measured. Who was right?

Evan Thompson

Photo of a person wearing large sunglasses with outdoor scenery reflected, resting their fingers on their chin in a thoughtful pose.

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Ethics

Main character syndrome

Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love

Anna Gotlib

A person at night placing an object in a large bin labelled ‘TRASH ONLY’ on an empty street lit by streetlights.

video

Personality

A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded

14 minutes

Photo of an ancient male statue with a cloth draped over his shoulder and arm, three people are sitting on a bench to the side of the statue

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Thinkers and theories

The value of our values

When Nietzsche used the tools of philology to explore the nature of morality, he became a ‘philosopher of the future’

Alexander Prescott-Couch

Painting of two men sitting in a barn, one on a bench and the other on a chair, with a horse and pumpkins in the background.

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History of ideas

Philosophy of the people

How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest

Joseph M Keegin

A busy beach scene with children on donkeys, people in the sea, a man reading on a sun lounger, and a dog urinating on a sun shade.

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Virtues and vices

Make it awkward!

Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script

Alexandra Plakias

Black and white photo of four people in sunglasses standing on a terrace overlooking the sea with a hilly coastline in the background.

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Metaphysics

Desperate remedies

In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists

Nina Emery

Photo of a light beige woven fabric with black and red borders on the sides, frayed edges at the bottom, and a black background.

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Political philosophy

Citizens and spinning wheels

For Indians to be truly free, Gandhi argued they must take up traditional crafts. Was it a quixotic hope or inspired solution?

Benjamin Studebaker

Photo of two young Asian women wearing sunglasses sitting in the back of a pickup truck at an outdoor event with American flags and mountains.

video

Meaning and the good life

A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado

9 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

essay

Political philosophy

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune

An old photograph of a man pulling a small cart with a child and belongings, followed by a woman and three children; one child is pushing a stroller.

essay

Thinkers and theories

Rawls the redeemer

For John Rawls, liberalism was more than a political project: it is the best way to fashion a life that is worthy of happiness

Alexandre Lefebvre

Two children hugging on the floor, one in a white shirt smiling with eyes closed while the other wears a red jacket.

video

Bioethics

Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?

10 minutes

A black-and-white photo of a person riding a horse in, with a close-up of another horse in the foreground under bright sunlight.

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Anthropology

Your body is an archive

If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records?

Helena Miton

Silhouette of baobab trees against a vibrant orange sunset with the sun peeking through the branches of the largest tree.

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Biology

Seeing plants anew

The stunningly complex behaviour of plants has led to a new way of thinking about our world: plant philosophy

Stella Sandford

A walking figure made of black shapes, with a pink ticket for “The Moviegoer” by Walker Percy as its body, on a yellow background.

video

Meaning and the good life

‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’

2 minutes

A painting of the back of a framed artwork with an attached small paper labelled ‘36’. The wood shows some nails and slight wear.

essay

Knowledge

Frameworks

Knowledge is often a matter of discovery. But when the nature of an enquiry itself is at question, it is an act of creation

Céline Henne

Black-and-white photo of three Black men sitting at a table with microphones during a press conference. One of the men has a bandage on his head.

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History of ideas

All that we are

The philosophy of personalism inspired Martin Luther King’s dream of a better world. We still need its hopeful ideas today

Bennett Gilbert

Black and white snowy mountain scene with vehicles, overlaid by a large smear of vivid blue paint in the upper right area.

video

Knowledge

An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place

4 minutes

Still life with musical instruments, sheet music, books, and a small statue on a table draped with a richly patterned red and gold curtain.

essay

Music

A novel kind of music

So-called ‘classical’ music was as revolutionary as the modern novel in its storytelling, harmony and depth

Joel Sandelson

A black-and-white photo of soldiers in uniform checking documents of several men standing outdoors, with laundry hanging in the background.

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Psychiatry and psychotherapy

Decolonising psychology

At times complicit in racism and oppression, psychology has also been a fertile ground for radical and liberatory thought

Rami Gabriel