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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
Illustration of a brain with a tap attached, with yellow liquid flowing out against a grey background.

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Ethics

What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property

6 minutes

Photo of three people in traditional robes, two holding wooden staffs, standing outside a wooden building in sunlight.

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Rituals and celebrations

A life in Zen

Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind

Anshi Zachary Smith

Black and white photo of a man in a suit speaking passionately at a podium with microphones.

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Biography and memoir

The story of Malcolm X

Alex Haley co-wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X but Haley left out some profound elements of Malcolm’s political thought

Alex White

Photo of a woman wearing sunglasses, gesturing in front of a large stone monument with carved figures.

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Thinkers and theories

The prison abolitionist who dares to envision a world without ‘unfreedoms’

16 minutes

A round pot encircles a hole in the soil, around the hole are dried leaves, a stone and a stick.

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Anthropology

Spider divination

Life is complicated. In Cameroon, initiated diviners read the messages of spiders to untangle possible futures

David Zeitlyn

A crocodile underwater with mouth open wide showing teeth in a cloudy green environment.

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The environment

Beyond food and people

Nietzsche shows us how to embrace our connection with nature – without denying its essential conflict, strife and suffering

Nicholas E Low

A person in a hospital gown sitting on a bed in a bright patient room, large window and privacy curtain visible.

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Human rights and justice

Knowledge and justice

Any legal system that fails to compensate people for epistemic harm is unjust. Their damage must be named and remedied

Mitch Woolery

Photo of two polar bears exploring a decaying wooden building, one looks out a window, the other stands on the porch steps.

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Animals and humans

Humanlike?

Interpreting the emotional lives of animals requires a subtler and more nuanced understanding of anthropomorphism

Mike Dacey

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

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Consciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

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Mathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes

A hospital room with a patient in a gown and headscarf speaking to a doctor, while a man stands nearby taking notes.

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Illness and disease

The power of the ‘C’ word

Saying the word ‘cancer’ changes a person’s life and can lead to overtreatment and fear. Is the word too hot to use at all?

Benjamin Chin-Yee

Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

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Biology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

An elderly person lying in a hospital bed in a bright room with a walker and a window nearby.

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Death

Freedom over death

Death is a certainty. But choosing how and when we depart is a modest opportunity for freedom – and dignity

Michael Cholbi

Painting of blind men with sticks leading one another, one has fallen, landscape and church in the background.

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Thinkers and theories

The French liar

René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?

Sandrine Parageau

A large white cathedral with golden domes near a river, surrounded by trees with autumn colours.

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Architecture

The replica and the original

Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?

Elizabeth Kostina

Photo of a rustic stone house with a shaded garden path lined with lush greenery and flowering plants under a clear blue sky.

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History of ideas

From scattered traces

How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought

Luka Boršić

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting at a kitchen table appearing deep in thought or conversation.

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Virtues and vices

Awkward silences

What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other

Rebecca Roache

Photo of a man with glasses and grey hair in a suit speaking animatedly against a dark background.

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Knowledge

Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy

10 minutes

Photo of a modern house built over a waterfall, surrounded by dense green forest and a rocky stream.

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Architecture

A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture

14 minutes

Medieval painting of a circular walled city with towers and a large lamb statue on a roof, surrounded by countryside.

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Political philosophy

The allure of autarky

Liberal thinkers are shocked that nations are once again isolating from the world. The real surprise would be if they didn’t

Ben Chu

Photo of an older man with white hair and beard in a cityscape with tall modern buildings in the background.

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Economics

A tour of New York’s gaudiest neighbourhood with the Marxist geographer David Harvey

13 minutes

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting on a sofa holding a newspaper with a front-page story about a UFO sighting.

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History of science

Incredible testimonies

In the 1980s, thousands of Americans began to suspect they may have been abducted by aliens. What happened?

Greg Eghigian

A dimly lit bar with red decor, a man sitting at the counter, a bartender, and a woman entering through a door.

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Comparative philosophy

What is Ethiopian philosophy?

Riven by two competing schools of thought, the future of philosophical enquiry in Ethiopia stands at a crossroads

Fasil Merawi

Renaissance drawing of two figures in robes in a circle on aged paper. One figure points to a celestial object composed of concentric circles on the left.

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Philosophy of science

Why philosophy of physics?

Some physicists reject philosophy as a distraction from ‘real’ science but it is in fact both useful and beautiful

James Read