videoEthics
What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property
6 minutes
videoKnowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
10 minutes
essayPhilosophy of science
Why philosophy of physics?
Some physicists reject philosophy as a distraction from ‘real’ science but it is in fact both useful and beautiful
James Read
essayPhilosophy of science
More-than-human science
When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible. Should we worry?
Brandon Boesch
essayPhysics
The stagnation of physics
Physicists today need to jettison the all-too-attractive myth that they are uncovering the hidden reality of our Universe
Adrien De Sutter
essayMathematics
Beyond causality
In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics
Gordon Gillespie
essayHistory of science
The birth of naturalism
The modern era is often seen as the triumph of science over supernaturalism. But what really happened is far more interesting
Peter Harrison
essayChemistry
Chemical laws
Often dismissed as the poor cousin of the sciences, chemistry has revealed natural laws that illuminate our Universe
Vanessa A Seifert
essayPhilosophy of science
Aha = wow
We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them
Bridget Ritz & Brandon Vaidyanathan
essayStories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke
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
essayPhilosophy of science
Elusive but everywhere
A new theory argues that unseen ‘fields’ guide all goal-directed things in the Universe, from falling rocks to voyaging turtles
Daniel W McShea & Gunnar O Babcock
essayPhilosophy of science
The forces of chance
Social scientists cling to simple models of reality – with disastrous results. Instead they must embrace chaos theory
Brian Klaas
essayPhilosophy of science
Life makes mistakes
Hens try to hatch golf balls, whales get beached. Getting things wrong seems to play a fundamental role in life on Earth
David S Oderberg
essayHistory of science
Clock time contra lived time
Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein fundamentally disagreed about the nature of time and how it can be measured. Who was right?
Evan Thompson
essayMetaphysics
Desperate remedies
In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists
Nina Emery
essayBiology
Seeing plants anew
The stunningly complex behaviour of plants has led to a new way of thinking about our world: plant philosophy
Stella Sandford
essayQuantum theory
Quantum dialectics
When quantum mechanics posed a threat to the Marxist doctrine of materialism, communist physicists sought to reconcile the two
Jim Baggott
essayEvolution
Kinship
Science must become attuned to the subtle conversations that pervade all life, from the primordial to the present
David Waltner-Toews
essayHistory of science
The missing conversation
To the detriment of the public, scientists and historians don’t engage with one another. They must begin a new dialogue
Lorraine Daston & Peter Harrison
videoGender
When aggression is viewed as brilliance, it hurts women in science, and science itself
5 minutes
essayPhilosophy of science
Why not scientism?
Science is not the only form of knowledge but it is the best, being the most successful epistemic enterprise in history
Moti Mizrahi
essayHistory of science
Machina mundi
How medieval thinkers foreshadowed modern physics in investigating the character of machines, devices and forces
Henrik Lagerlund & Sylvain Roudaut
videoThinkers and theories
Bernard Williams on Descartes’s audacious endeavour to prove knowledge is possible
43 minutes