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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
Eleonore Stump on the problem of evil | Aeon
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Philosophy of religion

How a devout Catholic philosopher approaches the problem of evil

8 minutes

Aristotle’s ergon | Aeon
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Meaning and the good life

Why Aristotle believed that philosophy was humanity’s highest purpose

9 minutes

Are coincidences real? | Aeon
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Metaphysics

Are coincidences real?

I am an unequivocal rationalist and yet I still want to see something strange and wonderful in life’s weird coincidences

Paul Broks

How to outsmart the prisoner’s dilemma | Aeon
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Logic and probability

Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out

6 minutes

Barry Loewer on causation | Aeon
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Metaphysics

Bertrand Russell wanted to kill off causation. Can contemporary philosophy rescue it?

8 minutes

Ethical dilemma: whose life is more valuable? | Aeon
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Ethics

How many monkeys is it worth sacrificing to save a human life?

6 minutes

Moral mathematics | Aeon
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Ethics

Moral mathematics

Subjecting the problems of ethics to the cool quantifications of logic and probability can help us to be better people

Elad Uzan

AC Grayling: Why not nothing? | Aeon
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Metaphysics

Is the question ‘Why is there something instead of nothing?’ even worth asking?

9 minutes

The Boltzmann brain paradox | Aeon
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Logic and probability

Is it more likely you’re a person with a past, or an ephemeral brain in a void?

6 minutes

Gödel’s incompleteness theorem | Aeon
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Mathematics

How a verbal paradox shattered the notion of total certainty in mathematics

5 minutes

What is a law of nature? | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

What is a law of nature?

Laws of nature are impossible to break, and nearly as difficult to define. Just what kind of necessity do they possess?

Marc Lange

Bertrand’s paradox | Aeon
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Logic and probability

The unresolved probability paradox that goes to the heart of scientific objectivity

8 minutes

This paradoxical life | Aeon
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Logic and probability

This paradoxical life

When logic fails to make sense of a world noisy with inconsistency, paraconsistent logics hold out (im)possible solutions

Zach Weber

How an infinite hotel ran out of room | Aeon
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Mathematics

Check in to the Hilbert Hotel, and learn why some infinities are bigger than others

6 minutes

Degrees of uncertainty | Aeon
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Earth science and climate

How much can science really tell us about the future of climate change?

24 minutes

The impossible chessboard puzzle | Aeon
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Mathematics

This puzzle is nearly impossible – but working out why is its own brain-teaser

19 minutes

The paradox of the ravens | Aeon
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Logic and probability

Is a red apple proof that all ravens are black? A paradox of scientific logic

6 minutes

Peak ellipsis | Aeon
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essay

Thinkers and theories

Peak ellipsis

Does philosophy reside in the unsayable or should it care only for precision? Carnap, Heidegger and the great divergence

Sam Dresser

Why do you believe what you do? Run some diagnostics on it | Aeon
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Values and beliefs

Why do you believe what you do? Run some diagnostics on it

Miriam Schoenfield

The politics of logic | Aeon
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Political philosophy

The politics of logic

Should philosophy express the national character of a people? Bertrand Russell’s ‘scientific’ philosophy was a bulwark against nationalism

Alexander Klein

How ad hominem arguments can demolish appeals to authority | Aeon
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Logic and probability

How ad hominem arguments can demolish appeals to authority

Moti Mizrahi

The concept of probability is not as simple as you think | Aeon
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idea

Logic and probability

The concept of probability is not as simple as you think

Nevin Climenhaga

Philosophy must be useful | Aeon
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essay

Thinkers and theories

Philosophy must be useful

For Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, much of philosophy was mere nonsense. Then came Frank Ramsey’s pragmatic alternative

Cheryl Misak

Slaying the Snark: what nonsense verse tells us about reality | Aeon
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idea

Stories and literature

Slaying the Snark: what nonsense verse tells us about reality

Nina Lyon