Philosophy

Who was Duns Scotus?

His name is now the byword for a fool, yet his proof for the existence of God was the most rigorous of the medieval period

Thomas M Ward

How a devout Catholic philosopher approaches the problem of evil

8 minutes

Reckoning with compassion

After an abuse scandal destroyed my Buddhist community, I had to reconsider what it means to live an ethically attuned life

Jessica Locke

A new paganism

Now is the time to revitalise our relationship with nature and immerse ourselves in the little wonders of the universe

Ed Simon

A God beyond logic

The history of natural theology shows that Intelligent Design and New Atheism both got it wrong, in strangely similar ways

Adam R Shapiro

What Zen Buddhist riddles reveal about knowledge and the unknowable

5 minutes

How to pray to a dead God

The modern world is disenchanted. God remains dead. But our need for transcendence lives on. How should we fulfil it?

Ed Simon

A just and loving gaze

Simone Weil: mystic, philosopher, activist. Her ethics demand that we look beyond the personal and find the universal

Deborah Casewell

Reincarnation now

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

Avram Alpert

Why read Boethius today?

Written while awaiting execution, the Consolation of Philosophy poses questions about human reason that remain urgent today

John Marenbon

Perennial philosophy

Aldous Huxley argued that all religions in the world were underpinned by universal beliefs and experiences. Was he right?

Jules Evans

If you think that modern cosmology leaves no room for ‘god’, start using your imagination

27 minutes

Muhammad: an anticlerical hero of the European Enlightenment

John Tolan

Why the demoniac stayed in his comfortable corner of hell

John Kaag

Buddhism and self-deception

How can I logically manage to deceive myself? Buddhist thought offers a way out of the philosophical paradox

Katie Javanaud

Wittgenstein and religion

In the case atheists vs religious belief, Ludwig Wittgenstein is called to the stand. Whose side does his testimony serve?

Stephen Law

How Al-Farabi drew on Plato to argue for censorship in Islam

Rashmee Roshan Lall

A funhouse mirror for the soul

Alan Jay Levinovitz

Why did the pope phone the philosopher?

Santiago Zabala

Religion is about emotion regulation, and it’s very good at it

Stephen T Asma