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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
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Art

The irreverent duo who thumbed their noses at the Soviet Union and the US art world

11 minutes

A close-up shot of one woman holding and comforting another grief-stricken woman
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Ageing and death

Witness the pain

When loved ones are traumatically lost, bereaved families become accidental activists by turning grief into grievance

Chris Bobel

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Thinkers and theories

Henri Bergson on why the existence of things precedes their possibility

3 minutes

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Ethics

Ethics has no foundation

Ethical values can be both objective and knowable – torture really is wrong – yet not need any foundation outside themselves

Andrew Sepielli

Two dark haired twin girls in tartan dresses look through an unglazed window frame
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Metaphysics

Both one and yet distinct

Being a twin (as our author knows) cracks open our ideas of the perfectly bounded self and might liberate us all

Helena de Bres

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Metaphysics

Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them

8 minutes

A crab is seen on a sandy beach. In the background and out of focus is a woman in a swimsuit
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Philosophy of mind

What is it like to be a crab?

Consciousness science should move past a focus on complex mammalian brains to study the behaviour of ‘simpler’ animals

Kristin Andrews

A yellow orchid flower in a vase is lit by sunlight from a side window in a living room. The background is out of focus
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Psychiatry and psychotherapy

Psychosis and psychedelics

In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis

Phoebe Friesen

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Metaphysics

Purposeful universe

Neither atheism nor theism adequately explains reality. That is why we must consider the middle ground between the two

Philip Goff

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Logic and probability

The patterns of reality

Some have thought that logic will one day be completed and all its problems solved. Now we know it is an endless task

Timothy Williamson

A man in tradional long shorts and striped shirt holds a huge heavy stone abvove his head as a crowd looks on
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Values and beliefs

How traditions progress

The colourful Swiss sport of stone putting illuminates Aristotle’s insights into the shortcomings of conservative thought

Daniel Kranzelbinder

A figure is silhouetted in an older style apartment block window at night. In the distance are taller modern tower block apartments
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Cities

The haunting of modern China

In Nanjing, Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, rapid urbanisation is multiplying a fear of death and belief in ghosts

Andrew Kipnis

A woman sits alone in a Parisian cafe with a glass of wine, while the neighbouring tables are full of socialising groups
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Love and friendship

Loved, yet lonely

You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?

Kaitlyn Creasy

A graffitti sign in an underpass reads ‘Life is too short to be wasted on the pursuit of happiness’; it is reflected in pooling water underneath
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History of ideas

Whither philosophy?

The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help

Siobhan Lyons

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Film and visual culture

The truth of photographs

It’s often said that a successful picture ‘captures the essence’ of a subject. But a great photograph does so much more

Daniel Star

A shirtless man in jeans lies sleeping beside his 1970s era car on the sandy beach
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Work

Disengage

Modern life subjects us to all-consuming demands. That’s why we should reflect on what it means to step away from it all

David J Siegel

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Cognition and intelligence

Are you an artistic genius?

Maybe not, but if that’s the threshold you use for creativity in your life, you are coming at the problem all wrong

James C Kaufman

Human figures beneath a glass dome watch the launch of a rocket from the surface of Mars
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Space exploration

The final ethical frontier

Earthbound exploration was plagued with colonialism, exploitation and extraction. Can we hope to make space any different?

Philip Ball

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video

The ancient world

Meet the absentee gods and nefarious spirits of ancient Mesopotamia

6 minutes

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Ethics

Wrestling with relativism

Bernard Williams argued that one’s ethics is shaped by culture and history. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is right

Daniel Callcut

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Religion

Praying in shoes

The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th

Aaron Rock-Singer

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Religion

How Jewish leaders in the US are fighting abortion bans on religious grounds

24 minutes

The title page and frontispiece engraving of an 18th-century book written in German. The title of the book is written in red in a Gothic font
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Thinkers and theories

The great, forgotten Wolff

Written for laymen, read by women and kings, Christian Wolff’s mathematical method made him a key Enlightenment philosopher

Michael Walschots

A black and white photo of a man in doctor’s clothing posed next to a lab bench with a microscope looking directly at the camera
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Medicine

Physician, invade thyself

Eager for medical breakthroughs, some doctors take enormous risks experimenting on themselves. Should we celebrate them?

Tom Doyle