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Social psychology
The magic of the mundane
Pioneering sociologist Erving Goffman realised that every action is deeply revealing of the social norms by which we live
Lucy McDonald
video
Ethics
For Iris Murdoch, selfishness is a fault that can be solved by reframing the world
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Against power
As a republican, Sophie de Grouchy argued that sympathy, not domination, must be the glue that holds society together
Sandrine Bergès & Eric Schliesser
video
Thinkers and theories
‘My art is oratory, Socrates.’ An ancient warning on the power and peril of rhetoric
4 minutes
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Metaphysics
What awaits us?
Humanity’s future remains as unthinkable as the still-uncolonised galaxy or the enduring mystery of our own births and deaths
Jennifer Banks
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Thinkers and theories
On knowing who he was
Alan Watts, for all his faults, was a wildly imaginative and provocative thinker who reimagined religion in a secular age
Christopher Harding
essay
Thinkers and theories
We’ll meet again
The intrepid logician Kurt Gödel believed in the afterlife. In four heartfelt letters to his mother he explained why
Alexander T Englert
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Thinkers and theories
Dancing and time
For Rachel Bespaloff, philosophy was a sensual activity shaped by the rhythm of history, embodied in an instant of freedom
Isabel Jacobs
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War and peace
The two Chomskys
The US military’s greatest enemy worked in an institution saturated with military funding. How did it shape his thought?
Chris Knight
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Comparative philosophy
Forging philosophy
A 17th-century classic of Ethiopian philosophy might be a fake. Does it matter, or is that just how philosophy works?
Jonathan Egid
video
Thinkers and theories
Henri Bergson on why the existence of things precedes their possibility
3 minutes
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Logic and probability
The patterns of reality
Some have thought that logic will one day be completed and all its problems solved. Now we know it is an endless task
Timothy Williamson
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History of ideas
Whither philosophy?
The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help
Siobhan Lyons
essay
Ethics
Wrestling with relativism
Bernard Williams argued that one’s ethics is shaped by culture and history. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is right
Daniel Callcut
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Thinkers and theories
The great, forgotten Wolff
Written for laymen, read by women and kings, Christian Wolff’s mathematical method made him a key Enlightenment philosopher
Michael Walschots
video
Political philosophy
Liberal democracies are backsliding worldwide. Could anarchy help?
24 minutes
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Political philosophy
In the interests of all
How Eugene V Debs turned American republicanism against the chiefs of capitalism – and became a true crusader for freedom
Tom O’Shea
essay
Work
Freedom at work
There is always a demand for more jobs. But what makes a job good? For that, Immanuel Kant has an answer
Tyler Re
video
Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Why seek self-realisation?
In the face of climate crisis it might seem myopic but philosophers from Spinoza to Næss argue it is the only way forward
Helen De Cruz
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Political philosophy
Liberalism against capitalism
The work of John Rawls shows that liberal values of equality and freedom are fundamentally incompatible with capitalism
Colin Bradley
essay
Thinkers and theories
Wittgenstein in the classroom
The philosopher understood that learning – of a concept, of ourselves, of each other – is the undertaking of a whole life
Calum Jacobs
essay
Philosophy of religion
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
essay
Thinkers and theories
Analytic women
Twin forces marginalised the women of early analytic philosophy. Correct those mistakes, and the next generation benefits
Jeanne Peijnenburg & Sander Verhaegh