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Philosophy

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

Beauty and aesthetics Bioethics Comparative philosophy Cosmopolitanism Death Ethics History of ideas Knowledge Logic and probability Meaning and the good life Metaphysics Philosophy of language Philosophy of mind Philosophy of religion Philosophy of science Political philosophy Thinkers and theories Values and beliefs Virtues and vices

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An empty room with a chair against a wall on the right, scrunched paper on the floor by a bin, and electrical sockets on the wall.

essayWork

Fuck work

Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?

James Livingston

A person stands with arms crossed, looking into the distance on a dune in a vast, foggy desert. The image is in black and white.

essayMeaning and the good life

Indifference is a power

As legions of warriors and prisoners can attest, Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest happiness from adversity

Lary Wallace

Close-up of a yellowish amphibian embryo with black markings inside a transparent egg, on a dark background.

videoBiology

Watch a single cell become a complete organism in six pulsing minutes of timelapse

6 minutes

A large group of people in bikinis and swimwear, body-painted in bright colours, posing and flexing muscles outdoors.

essayGender and identity

Gender is not a spectrum

The idea that ‘gender is a spectrum’ is supposed to set us free. But it is both illogical and politically troubling

Rebecca Reilly-Cooper

A woman in a yellow saree standing among large piles of colourful clothes outdoors, with trees in the background.

videoBeauty and aesthetics

This is the final resting place of your cast-off clothing

14 minutes

Close-up photo of a woman’s freckled face focusing on green eyes and blonde hair strands.

essayPhilosophy of mind

The problem of mindfulness

Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos

Sahanika Ratnayake

A giant video screen displaying a face in a snowy city park, with two people under a red umbrella nearby.

essayKnowledge

Escape the echo chamber

First you don’t hear other views. Then you can’t trust them. Your personal information network entraps you just like a cult

C Thi Nguyen

Illustration of a man in a shirt, tie and braces pointing with both hands, showing a crooked smile, set against a red background

essayEthics

A theory of jerks

Are you surrounded by fools? Are you the only reasonable person around? Then maybe you’re the one with the jerkitude

Eric Schwitzgebel

Adolf Eichmann in court with headphones, wearing a suit and tie, looking to the side, against a plain background.

ideaWar and peace

What did Hannah Arendt really mean by the banality of evil?

Thomas White

Silhouette artwork of three birds standing in shallow water with reflections, minimalistic style with thin orange horizontal lines.

essayLogic and probability

Beyond true and false

Buddhist philosophy is full of contradictions. Now modern logic is learning why that might be a good thing

Graham Priest

Photo of an empty playground with a slide, swings and climbing frame on a foggy, frosty morning, creating an eerie atmosphere.

essayEthics

Kids? Just say no

You don’t have to dislike children to see the harms done by having them. There is a moral case against procreation

David Benatar

Close-up photo of a human eye with the word “Google” reflected on the pupil, showing the website’s homepage on a computer screen.

essayInformation and communication

The new mind control

The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do

Robert Epstein

Black and white photo of a lively gathering, people laughing and conversing around a table with wine bottles and glasses.

essayMeaning and the good life

The meanings of life

Happiness is not the same as a sense of meaning. How do we go about finding a meaningful life, not just a happy one?

Roy F Baumeister

A naked woman in a bed with a man partially visible, in a room with red walls and a wooden bed frame, clothes on the floor and a light fixture on the wall.

essaySex and sexuality

Pornucopia

Critics say that porn degrades women, dulls sexual pleasure, and ruins authentic relationships – are they right?

Maria Konnikova

Black-and-white photo of a bald man with glasses who is Michel Foucault sitting on a couch, hand on his face, with bookshelves in the background.

essayPolitical philosophy

The power thinker

Original, painstaking, sometimes frustrating and often dazzling. Foucault’s work on power matters now more than ever

Colin Koopman

Medieval painting of three individuals in robes, one holding a sword and shield, another stirring a pot over a fire, while the third person watches on.

ideaHuman rights and justice

Why the trial by ordeal was actually an effective test of guilt

Peter T Leeson

Abstract painting of a face with two red eyes, geometric shapes in pastel colours and a textured orange background.

essayPhilosophy of mind

I am not a story

Some find it comforting to think of life as a story. Others find that absurd. So are you a Narrative or a non-Narrative?

Galen Strawson

A vibrant abstract painting depicting chaos and movement with swirling colours, figures, and shapes blending together dynamically.

essayNeuroscience

The real problem

It looks like scientists and philosophers might have made consciousness far more mysterious than it needs to be

Anil K Seth

Film still from Grease showing a young crowd in 1950s-style diner, with Olivia Newton John in a yellow dress smiling at John Travolta in a booth.

ideaPleasure and pain

Psychogenic shivers: why we get the chills when we aren’t cold

Félix Schoeller

Painting of a man with a beard, multiple heads around him, and yellow beams of light emitting from his eyes against a sky backdrop.

essayConsciousness and altered states

How the light gets out

Consciousness is the ‘hard problem’, the one that confounds science and philosophy. Has a new theory cracked it?

Michael Graziano

Painting of a bearded man in traditional Chinese attire holding a scroll and walking through a mountainous landscape with trees and rocks.

essayHistory of ideas

Western philosophy is racist

Academic philosophy in ‘the West’ ignores and disdains the thought traditions of China, India and Africa. This must change

Bryan W Van Norden

Close-up of a vintage book titled “Dictionary, Interpreting all such Hard Words of Whatsoever Language, now used in our refined English Tongue.”

essayLanguage 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

Illustration of an elderly man with a goatee, wearing a patterned sweater and lying on a couch, a clock on the wall showing 11:55.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Off-beat Zen

How I found my way out of depression, thanks to the writings of the English priest who brought Buddhism to the West

Tim Lott

Illustration of abstract buildings with floating clouds around them, depicted in a blue-green colour scheme with a grey background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Creative blocks

The very laws of physics imply that artificial intelligence must be possible. What’s holding us up?

David Deutsch