essay
Biology
The cell is not a factory
Scientific narratives project social hierarchies onto nature. That’s why we need better metaphors to describe cellular life
Charudatta Navare
essay
Stories and literature
Terrifying vistas of reality
H P Lovecraft, the master of cosmic horror stories, was a philosopher who believed in the total insignificance of humanity
Sam Woodward
essay
Bioethics
The dangers of AI farming
AI could lead to new ways for people to abuse animals for financial gain. That’s why we need strong ethical guidelines
Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert & Jonathan Birch
video
Biography and memoir
The unique life philosophy of Abdi, born in Somalia, living in the Netherlands
29 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
A man beyond categories
Paul Tillich was a religious socialist and a profoundly subtle theologian who placed doubt at the centre of his thought
Ted Farris
essay
Public health
It’s dirty work
In caring for and bearing with human suffering, hospital staff perform extreme emotional labour. Is there a better way?
Susanna Crossman
essay
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
essay
Political philosophy
The battles over beginnings
Niccolò Machiavelli’s profound insights about the violent origins of political societies help us understand the world today
David Polansky
video
Ethics
For Iris Murdoch, selfishness is a fault that can be solved by reframing the world
6 minutes
video
Death
A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal
6 minutes
video
Love and friendship
After his son’s terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing – and his granddaughter
25 minutes
essay
Language and linguistics
Cathedrals of convention
Humans have a strong impulse to see things that are arbitrary or conventional as natural and essential – especially language
Reuben Cohn-Gordon
video
Art
More than breathtaking, ‘The Birth of Venus’ signalled an aesthetic revolution
19 minutes
essay
Comparative philosophy
Folklore is philosophy
Both folktales and formal philosophy unsettle us into thinking anew about our cherished values and views of the world
Abigail Tulenko
essay
Evolution
Kinship
Science must become attuned to the subtle conversations that pervade all life, from the primordial to the present
David Waltner-Toews
essay
Political philosophy
Liberal socialism now
As the crisis of democracy deepens, we must return to liberalism’s revolutionary and egalitarian roots
Matthew McManus
video
Values and beliefs
A Zen Buddhist priest voices the deep matters he usually ponders in silence
5 minutes
essay
Sports and games
The moral risks of fandom
Players, coaches and team owners sometimes do terrible things. What, if anything, should their fans do about that?
Jake Wojtowicz & Alfred Archer
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
Frontier AI ethics
Generative agents will change our society in weird, wonderful and worrying ways. Can philosophy help us get a grip on them?
Seth Lazar
essay
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
essay
Philosophy of language
Metaphors make the world
Woven into the fabric of language, metaphors shape how we understand reality. What happens when we try using new ones?
Benjamin Santos Genta
video
Thinkers and theories
‘My art is oratory, Socrates.’ An ancient warning on the power and peril of rhetoric
4 minutes
essay
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
essay
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