essay
Beauty and aesthetics
Is beauty natural?
Charles Darwin was as fascinated by extravagant ornament in nature as Jane Austen was in culture. Did their explanations agree?
Abigail Tulenko
essay
Philosophy of science
Elusive but everywhere
Everything in the Universe, from wandering turtles to falling rocks, is surrounded by ‘fields’ that guide and direct movement
Daniel W McShea & Gunnar O Babcock
essay
Philosophy of science
The forces of chance
Social scientists cling to simple models of reality – with disastrous results. Instead they must embrace chaos theory
Brian Klaas
video
Human rights and justice
Can providing humanitarian aid be illegal? A troubling case from the US-Mexico border
17 minutes
essay
History of ideas
Settling accounts
Before he was famous, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was Louise Dupin’s scribe. It’s her ideas on inequality that fill his writings
Rebecca Wilkin
essay
Philosophy of mind
Rage against the machine
For all the promise and dangers of AI, computers plainly can’t think. To think is to resist – something no machine does
Alva Noë
essay
Philosophy of science
Life makes mistakes
Hens try to hatch golf balls, whales get beached. Getting things wrong seems to play a fundamental role in life on Earth
David S Oderberg
essay
Sex and sexuality
Sex and death
Our culture works hard to keep sex and death separate but recharging the libido might provide the release that grief needs
Cody Delistraty
essay
Politics and government
The spectre of insecurity
Liberals have forgotten that in order for our lives not to be nasty, brutish and short, we need stability. Enter Hobbes
Jennifer M Morton
video
Information and communication
Coverage of the ‘balloon boy’ hoax forms a withering indictment of for-profit news
17 minutes
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
video
Meaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes
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
essay
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
essay
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
essay
Ethics
Main character syndrome
Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love
Anna Gotlib
video
Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
essay
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
essay
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
essay
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
essay
Metaphysics
Desperate remedies
In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists
Nina Emery
essay
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
video
Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
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