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Philosophy

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

A sliver of reality | Aeon
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Knowledge

A sliver of reality

Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe. Are there hard limits to human intelligence?

David H Wolpert

The lady vanishes | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

The lady vanishes

The history of ideas still struggles to remember the names of notable women philosophers. Mary Hesse is a salient example

Ann-Sophie Barwich

What is a law of nature? | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

What is a law of nature?

Laws of nature are impossible to break, and nearly as difficult to define. Just what kind of necessity do they possess?

Marc Lange

Bertrand’s paradox | Aeon
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Logic and probability

The unresolved probability paradox that goes to the heart of scientific objectivity

8 minutes

Jeff Tollaksen: quantum mechanics experiments | Aeon
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Quantum theory

Mind-bending new quantum experiments are blurring past, present and future

10 minutes

Fringe theories stack | Aeon
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History of science

Fringe theories stack

Believe in the Loch Ness monster and you’re more likely to believe the Apollo missions were fake. How do weird beliefs work?

Michael D Gordin

Calculate but don’t shut up | Aeon
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History of science

Calculate but don’t shut up

The cliché has it that the Copenhagen interpretation demands adherence without deep enquiry. That does physics a disservice

Jim Baggott

The beautiful experiment | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

The beautiful experiment

Science has become extraordinarily technocratic and complex. Is the simple and decisive experiment still a worthy ideal?

Milena Ivanova

Learn from machine learning | Aeon
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Future of technology

Learn from machine learning

The world is a black box full of extreme specificity: it might be predictable but that doesn’t mean it is understandable

David Weinberger

Why simplicity works | Aeon
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Physics

Why simplicity works

Does the existence of a multiverse hold the key for why nature’s laws seem so simple?

Johnjoe McFadden

An idea with bite | Aeon
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Genetics

An idea with bite

The ‘selfish gene’ persists for the reason all good scientific metaphors do: it remains a sharp tool for clear thinking

J Arvid Ågren

ORIGINALCosmology in the dark | Aeon
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Cosmology

Building ‘bigger and better’ has pushed cosmology forward. Can it take it any further?

7 minutes

A non-Standard model | Aeon
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Cosmology

A non-Standard model

Most cosmologists say dark matter must exist. So far, it’s nowhere to be found. A widely scorned rival theory explains why

David Merritt

Degrees of uncertainty | Aeon
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Earth science and climate

How much can science really tell us about the future of climate change?

24 minutes

Sabine Hossenfelder: searching for beauty in mathematics | Aeon
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Mathematics

Against ‘beauty’ in science – how striving for elegance stifles progress

9 minutes

Quantum fluctuations | Aeon
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Quantum theory

‘Moving paintings’ evoke a quantum particle collision at the Large Hadron Collider

4 minutes

Keep science irrational | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

Keep science irrational

Is hard data the only path to scientific truth? That’s an absurd, illogical and profoundly useful fiction

Michael Strevens

Life with purpose | Aeon
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Biology

Life with purpose

Biologists balk at any talk of ‘goals’ or ‘intentions’ – but a bold new research agenda has put agency back on the table

Philip Ball

Roger Penrose: Why did the Universe begin? | Aeon
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Cosmology

A cyclical, forgetful Universe – Roger Penrose details an astonishing origin hypothesis

17 minutes

Cognition all the way down | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

Cognition all the way down

Biology’s next great horizon is to understand cells, tissues and organisms as agents with agendas (even if unthinking ones)

Michael Levin & Daniel C Dennett

Sex is real | Aeon
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Biology

Sex is real

Yes, there are just two biological sexes. No, this doesn’t mean every living thing is either one or the other

Paul Griffiths

Sexual dinosaurs | Aeon
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Gender and identity

Sexual dinosaurs

The charge of ‘feminist bias’ is used to besmirch anyone who questions sexist assumptions at work in neuroscience

Cordelia Fine

The necessity of awe | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

The necessity of awe

In awe we hold fast to nature’s strangeness and open up to the unknown. No wonder it’s central to the scientific imagination

Helen De Cruz