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Philosophy

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

Stuck with the soul | Aeon
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Consciousness and altered states

Stuck with the soul

The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep hooks in the human psyche

David P Barash

Barry Loewer on causation | Aeon
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video

Metaphysics

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

8 minutes

We are interwoven beings | Aeon
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Metaphysics

We are interwoven beings

A dragon needs the clouds and the wind in order to fly. What happens when we too relinquish individualistic reasoning?

Mercedes Valmisa

Bernard Williams and Bryan Magee on Descartes | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

Bernard Williams on Descartes’s audacious endeavour to prove knowledge is possible

43 minutes

This essay isn’t true | Aeon
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Metaphysics

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

Trenches in Chernobyl | Aeon
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War and peace

Trenches in Chernobyl

Disturbing and inhaling radioactive dust, in their haste Russian soldiers unburied the wrecked, undead Earth itself

Michael Marder

The lethal act | Aeon
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Ethics

The lethal act

The Buddha taught not to kill, yet his followers have at times disobeyed him. Can murderers still be Buddhists?

Martin Kovan

AC Grayling: Why not nothing? | Aeon
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video

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

Why read Fichte today? | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

Why read Fichte today?

Inspired by Kant, Fichte launched a radical philosophical system based on subjectivity and aspiring to freedom for all

Gabriel Gottlieb

Martha Nussbaum and Bryan Magee on Aristotle | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

Metaphysics and beyond – Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle’s indelible ideas

43 minutes

How do you know you’re not dreaming? | Aeon
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video

Metaphysics

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

5 minutes

What is movement? | Aeon
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video

Metaphysics

To see the Universe more clearly, think in terms of processes, not objects

6 minutes

Karl Friston: embodied cognition | Aeon
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Philosophy of mind

Embodied cognition seems intuitive, but philosophy can push it to some strange places

14 minutes

Hegel today | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

Hegel today

Too dense, too abstract, too suspect, Hegel was outside the Anglophone canon for a century. Why is his star rising again?

Willem deVries

The Rashomon effect | Aeon
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video

Knowledge

What can a Kurosawa classic tell us about reality, knowledge and truth?

5 minutes

The mind does not exist | Aeon
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Philosophy of mind

The mind does not exist

The terms ‘mind’ and ‘mental’ are messy, harmful and distracting. We should get rid of them

Joe Gough

The divine Dante | Aeon
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Stories and literature

The divine Dante

At 700, Dante’s Divine Comedy is as modern as ever – a lesson in spiritual intelligence that makes us better at being alive

Mark Vernon

Ideas that work | Aeon
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History of ideas

Ideas that work

Truth, knowledge, justice – to understand how our loftiest abstractions earn their keep, trace them to their practical origins

Matthieu Queloz

On the necessity of obedience | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

On the necessity of obedience

George Berkeley was a visionary immaterialist. And a philosopher whose views on subordination to God legitimised slavery

Tom Jones

Reincarnation now | Aeon
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Philosophy of religion

Reincarnation now

Modern mindfulness strips Buddhism of its spiritual core. We need an ethics of reincarnation for an interconnected world

Avram Alpert

The problem of now | Aeon
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Philosophy of mind

The problem of now

The injunction to immerse yourself in the present might be psychologically potent, but is it metaphysically meaningful?

John Martin Fischer

Mary’s room | Aeon
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video

Knowledge

Can you know everything about colour if you see in black and white? A thought experiment

5 minutes