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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
Fuck work | Aeon
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essay

Work

Fuck work

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

James Livingston

Becoming | Aeon
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video

Biology

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

6 minutes

Indifference is a power | Aeon
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Meaning 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

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

War and peace

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

Thomas White

Gender is not a spectrum | Aeon
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essay

Gender 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

Why philosophy is so important in science education | Aeon
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Philosophy of science

Why philosophy is so important in science education

Subrena E Smith

EXCLUSIVEUnravel | Aeon
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Beauty and aesthetics

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

14 minutes

The problem of mindfulness | Aeon
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essay

Philosophy 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

Escape the echo chamber | Aeon
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essay

Knowledge

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

A theory of jerks | Aeon
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essay

Ethics

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

Beyond true and false | Aeon
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essay

Logic 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

Kids? Just say no | Aeon
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essay

Ethics

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

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

Human rights and justice

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

Peter T Leeson

You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want to | Aeon
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Knowledge

You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want to

Daniel DeNicola

The new mind control | Aeon
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Information 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

The power thinker | Aeon
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essay

Political philosophy

The power thinker

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

Colin Koopman

Pornucopia | Aeon
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Sex and sexuality

Pornucopia

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

Maria Konnikova

The real problem | Aeon
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Neuroscience

The real problem

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

Anil K Seth

The meanings of life | Aeon
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Meaning 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

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

Pleasure and pain

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

Félix Schoeller

Before you can be with others, first learn to be alone | Aeon
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idea

History of ideas

Before you can be with others, first learn to be alone

Jennifer Stitt

How Camus and Sartre split up over the question of how to be free | Aeon
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idea

History of ideas

How Camus and Sartre split up over the question of how to be free

Sam Dresser

I am not a story | Aeon
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essay

Philosophy 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

You thought quantum mechanics was weird: check out entangled time | Aeon
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idea

Philosophy of science

You thought quantum mechanics was weird: check out entangled time

Elise Crull