Philosophy Science Psychology Society Culture

DonateNewsletterSIGN IN

Metaphysics

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

Beauty and aesthetics Bioethics Comparative philosophy Cosmopolitanism Death Ethics History of ideas Knowledge Logic and probability Meaning and the good life Metaphysics Philosophy of language Philosophy of mind Philosophy of religion Philosophy of science Political philosophy Thinkers and theories Values and beliefs Virtues and vices

Explore more Philosophy

Ancient Chinese painting of a scholar in robes resting on a mat outdoors by cliffs and sparse vegetation on brown silk canvas.

essayMetaphysics

Essence is fluttering

As Zhuangzi saw, there is no immutably true self. Instead our identity is as dynamic and alive as a butterfly in flight

Alexander Douglas

A woman and four children inside a car, under an orange sky. A boy is in the driver’s seat, the woman in the passenger seat.

essayMetaphysics

Reality is evil

Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe

Drew M Dalton

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

videoKnowledge

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

10 minutes

videoPhilosophy of mind

‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations

3 minutes

Photo of deep space with a pale blue dot in the distance against a dark background, featuring faint light streaks.

essayCosmology

Just a pale blue dot

When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance?

Tim Bayne

Black and white photo of people wrapped in shawls sitting with light and smoke creating dramatic shadows and highlights.

essayPhilosophy of mind

By the light of brahman

Ideas from classical Indian philosophy help illuminate the enigmas of selfhood, consciousness and the nature of reality

Anand Vaidya & Manjula Menon

Black and white night photo of historic Gothic-style buildings with arched windows, towers and courtyards.

essayHistory of ideas

Ghosts among the philosophers

Cambridge, home of analytic philosophy, was also a hotbed of psychical research. How did this spooky subject take root?

Matyáš Moravec

A man speaking on stage with a headset microphone wearing glasses and a black sweater gesturing expressively with his hands.

videoMetaphysics

What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?

55 minutes

Two weathered, clay duck sculptures facing each other against a grey background.

essayMetaphysics

The truth about fiction

What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself

Hannah H Kim

Photo of Daniel Dennett looking to the side with a white beard and glasses wearing a suit against a black background.

essayPhilosophy of mind

The stories of Daniel Dennett

Often metaphorical and allusive, the philosopher’s work will long be remembered for how it grappled with everyday thought

Tim Bayne

Abstract photo of tree branches with a dreamy overlay of yellow and blue light creating a soft, ethereal effect.

essayMetaphysics

Many worlds, many selves

If it’s true that we live in a vast multiverse, then our understanding of identity, morality and even God must be reexamined

Emily Qureshi-Hurst

A solitary figure walking up misty stairs toward an unclear building, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

essayPhilosophy of science

The nature of natural laws

Physicists and philosophers today have formulated three opposing models that explain how laws work. Which is the best?

Mario Hubert

Black and white photo of four people in sunglasses standing on a terrace overlooking the sea with a hilly coastline in the background.

essayMetaphysics

Desperate remedies

In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists

Nina Emery

Painting of five women working in a field at sunset. Four are bent over tending to the soil, and one stands to the left looking at the sky with a bag on the ground beside her. The sky is a gradient of blue and orange with a visible crescent moon.

essayMetaphysics

The enchanted vision

Love is much more than a mere emotion or moral ideal. It imbues the world itself and we should learn to move with its power

Mark Vernon

Close-up microscopic view of Diatom plankton with transparent, geometric shapes connected by thin, radiant lines, set against a dark background.

videoMetaphysics

Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality

4 minutes

A couple lying on grass on a hill nearby an American listening station in Berlin

essayMetaphysics

What awaits us?

Humanity’s future remains as unthinkable as the still-uncolonised galaxy or the enduring mystery of our own births and deaths

Jennifer Banks

A mural depicting houses and a woman, with a man walking in front; snow is falling, and there’s snow on the ground.

essayLogic and probability

What is incoherence?

We can all be inconsistent. Philosophy illuminates a bigger puzzle: how do we hold contradictory beliefs at the same time?

Alex Worsnip

Visualisation of a double spiral pattern representing Lorenz attractor with a smaller graph inset on the right showing a mathematical plot labelled Z_n-1.

videoThinkers and theories

Henri Bergson on why the existence of things precedes their possibility

3 minutes

A woman carrying a child walks past a burning structure in a smoky environment, appearing concerned and cautious.

essayEthics

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

essayMetaphysics

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

Man with glasses speaking, wearing a brown shirt. Background is blurred with a colourful painting visible.

videoMetaphysics

Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them

8 minutes

Ancient adobe village atop a hill at dusk, overlooking vast plains with a few people walking and animals grazing in the foreground.

essayMetaphysics

Purposeful universe

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

Philip Goff

Silhouetted person standing on a windy snow-covered field with sunlight casting a long shadow behind them.

essayThinkers and theories

Why seek self-realisation?

In the face of climate crisis it might seem myopic but philosophers from Spinoza to Næss argue it is the only way forward

Helen De Cruz

Newspapers and leaves scattered on the pavement, with two people walking past a wrought iron fence in the background.

essayHistory of ideas

The post-linguistic turn

Analytic and continental philosophers were once united in their obsession with language. But now new questions have arisen

Crispin Sartwell