essay
Thinkers and theories
A philosophy of secrets
Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves
Peter Salmon
video
Philosophy of mind
Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no
5 minutes
essay
History of ideas
The post-linguistic turn
Analytic and continental philosophers were once united in their obsession with language. But now new questions have arisen
Crispin Sartwell
video
Thinkers and theories
Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?
13 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
Why Aristotle believed that philosophy was humanity’s highest purpose
9 minutes
essay
Knowledge
Meaning beyond definition
In science our concepts have neat, hard edges. In poetry our concepts stretch and expand. Both are necessary for knowledge
James Camien McGuiggan
essay
Thinkers and theories
The sage and his foibles
Scholars cannot agree whether the letters of Plato are fake or genuine. Is this just a symptom of misplaced reverence?
James Romm
essay
Thinkers and theories
The scar of identity
Alexandre Kojève was an immense influence on many French thinkers. What was so compelling about his lectures on Hegel?
Samantha Rose Hill
video
Thinkers and theories
Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result
4 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Masham and me
Were it not for her friendship with John Locke, the radical feminist gems of philosopher Damaris Masham might be unknown
Regan Penaluna
essay
Ethics
The ethics of human extinction
Why would it be so bad if our species came to an end? It is a question that reveals our latent values and hidden fears
Émile P Torres
essay
Knowledge
Known unknowables
The ancient Sceptics used doubt as a way of investigating the world. Later thinkers undermined even that possibility
Mahdi Ranaee
essay
Thinkers and theories
Forgotten existentialist
Sartre gets much of the credit for existentialism. Karl Jaspers not only preceded him, but offered a way out of despair
Deborah Casewell
essay
History of ideas
The first Romantics
How a close group of brilliant friends, in a tiny German university town, laid the foundations of modern consciousness
Andrea Wulf
essay
History of ideas
The herd in the head
It is enormously empowering – even intoxicating – to lose yourself to a crowd. That is why we need contrarians
Costica Bradatan
essay
Metaphysics
We are interwoven beings
A dragon needs the clouds and the wind in order to fly. What happens when we too relinquish individualistic reasoning?
Mercedes Valmisa
video
Thinkers and theories
Bernard Williams on Descartes’s audacious endeavour to prove knowledge is possible
43 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
The generous philosopher
Bruno Latour showed us how to think with the things of the world, respecting their right to exist and act on their own terms
Stephen Muecke
essay
Comparative philosophy
Medieval but not Christian
It’s shocking that histories of medieval philosophy celebrate only Christian thinkers, ignoring Islamic and Jewish thought
Yitzhak Y Melamed
essay
History of science
A singular scientist
James Lovelock was a visionary whose greatest ideas were made possible by his unshakeable independence
Roger Highfield
essay
Religion
Blue-eyed Buddhist
The story of a working-class radical from Ireland who became a celebrated monk and challenged the British Empire in Asia
Laurence Cox
essay
Thinkers and theories
Democracy or apocalypse
Eric Voegelin and Hans Kelsen fled the Nazis. In the US, they clashed over the nature of modernity and government
David Dyzenhaus
essay
Religion
Sisters in dharma
In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, Parwati Soepangat pioneered a Buddhist feminist theology with deep roots
Jack Meng-Tat Chia
video
History of ideas
Peter Singer charts the path from Hegelian philosophy to Marxist revolution
43 minutes