Philosophy
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Metaphysics
Is the question ‘Why is there something instead of nothing?’ even worth asking?
9 minutes
video
Philosophy of language
For Ludwig Wittgenstein, language is a game, but not a frivolous one
43 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Nil by page
When a writer stares down a blank page, the whole of literature stares back. Why, then, leave the empty page as it is?
Andrew Gallix
essay
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
essay
Language and linguistics
Typos, tricks and misprints
Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology
Arika Okrent
video
Language and linguistics
Ums, likes and y’knows get no respect – but they’re vital to conversation
6 minutes
essay
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
essay
Philosophy of language
Thoughts into words
Here’s the paradox of articulation: are you excavating existing ideas, or do your thoughts come into being as you speak?
Eli Alshanetsky
essay
Language and linguistics
Hand to mouth
If language began with gestures around a campfire and secret signals on hunts, why did speech come to dominate communication?
Kensy Cooperrider
idea
Language and linguistics
Hypocognition is a censorship tool that mutes what we can feel
Kaidi Wu
essay
Philosophy of language
The ethics of speech acts
It’s one thing to say something. It’s quite another for a person to do (or not do) something because of what you’ve said
Guy Longworth
essay
Philosophy of language
Making up stuff
A novel, by definition, tells a fictional story – but does that make its author a liar? On the space between stories and lies
Emar Maier
idea
Language and linguistics
Why learning a new language is like an illicit love affair
Marianna Pogosyan
essay
Animals and humans
The pointing ape
How a chimpanzee named Clint trained a psychologist to question human exceptionalism and reconsider the intelligence of apes
David Leavens
essay
Philosophy of language
The way words mean
Words stand for things in the world, and they stand apart from it. Perhaps meaning is more sunken into words than we realise?
Alexander Stern
idea
Thinkers and theories
Can you step in the same river twice? Wittgenstein v Heraclitus
David Egan
video
Language and linguistics
To all intensive purposes, you might have another think coming about how idioms work
4 minutes
idea
Language and linguistics
At the end of the day, think outside the box about clichés
Nana Ariel
essay
Language and linguistics
Words as feelings
A special class of vivid, textural words defies linguistic theory: could ‘ideophones’ unlock the secrets of humans’ first utterances?
David Robson
essay
Philosophy of language
Sex talks
The language of sexual negotiation must go far beyond ‘consent’ and ‘refusal’ if we are to foster ethical, autonomous sex
Rebecca Kukla
idea
Language and linguistics
Why languages and dialects really are different animals
Søren Wichmann
idea
Stories and literature
Slaying the Snark: what nonsense verse tells us about reality
Nina Lyon
essay
Language and linguistics
Who decides what words mean
Bound by rules, yet constantly changing, language might be the ultimate self-regulating system, with nobody in charge
Lane Greene
video
History of science
People have been trying to talk with apes for nearly a century. How far have we got?
8 minutes