Philosophy

So many unmarried men

For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors

Ellie Robson

The penumbral plunge

Diving into the ring of darkness beyond things easily answerable, asking ‘Why?’ questions is what make humans awesome

Eric Schwitzgebel

Aha = wow

We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them

Bridget Ritz & Brandon Vaidyanathan

Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow

11 minutes

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

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

4 minutes

What is ‘lived experience’?

The term is ubiquitous and double-edged. It is both a key source of authentic knowledge and a danger to true solidarity

Patrick J Casey

The ends of knowledge

Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end

Rachael Scarborough King & Seth Rudy

Wittgenstein in the classroom

The philosopher understood that learning – of a concept, of ourselves, of each other – is the undertaking of a whole life

Calum Jacobs

Why not scientism?

Science is not the only form of knowledge but it is the best, being the most successful epistemic enterprise in history

Moti Mizrahi

Meaning beyond definition

In science our concepts have neat, hard edges. In poetry our concepts stretch and expand. Both are necessary for knowledge

James Camien McGuiggan

Known unknowables

The ancient Sceptics used doubt as a way of investigating the world. Later thinkers undermined even that possibility

Mahdi Ranaee

The herd in the head

It is enormously empowering – even intoxicating – to lose yourself to a crowd. That is why we need contrarians

Costica Bradatan

This essay isn’t true

Alethic nihilism is the theory that nothing is true. There is much to gain by taking this radical idea seriously

David Liggins

Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?

6 minutes

A sliver of reality

Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe. Are there hard limits to human intelligence?

David H Wolpert

Knowing if you’re awake seems simple. Why has it vexed philosophers for centuries?

5 minutes

Imaginology

We need a new kind of approach to learning that shifts imagination from the periphery to the foundation of all knowledge

Stephen T Asma