Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN

Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
A weary looking medical staff member in scrubs and face mask sits at a desk in a hospital room surrounded by medical paraphernalia
Save

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

Save

video

Art

‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism

17 minutes

A doorway within a metallic-like surface surrounded by hazard tape leads to a low-lit tunnel
Save

essay

The future

Prehistory in the atomic age

To understand the terrifying futures unleashed by nuclear weapons, we urgently need to return to the deep past

Maria Stavrinaki

Save

video

The ancient world

An ancient Roman’s hilarious (and perhaps relatable) response to a social snub

2 minutes

Save

essay

Economics

Who bears the risk?

Under the guise of empowerment and freedom, politicians and business are offloading lifethreatening risk to individuals

Suzanne Schneider

Save

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

Save

video

Death

A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal

6 minutes

Save

essay

Anthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

A group of girls walk past the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC
Save

essay

Gender and identity

Silencing of the girls

Girls are still in a bad bargain with patriarchy: the price of relationship is keeping their true thoughts to themselves

Carol Gilligan

Save

essay

Religion

Inventing Hindu supremacy

Vinayak Savarkar ridiculed Gandhi, preaching that anti-Muslim violence was the only means to unite India into a nation

Mihir Dalal

Save

essay

History of technology

Indexing the information age

Over a weekend in 1995, a small group gathered in Ohio to unleash the power of the internet by making it navigable

Monica Westin

Seen from inside, a couple eat a basic meal whilst outside in an alleyway a queue of mostly older people wait their turn
Save

essay

Political philosophy

Liberal socialism now

As the crisis of democracy deepens, we must return to liberalism’s revolutionary and egalitarian roots

Matthew McManus

A footballer in the Manchester United red strip runs past cheering fans in the stadium
Save

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

Save

essay

Animals and humans

Ant geopolitics

Over the past four centuries quadrillions of ants have created a strange and turbulent global society that shadows our own

John Whitfield

Save

video

Rituals and celebrations

Meet the entrepreneur whose business is crafting perfect peak experiences

12 minutes

Save

essay

Religion

There was no Jesus

How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?

Gavin Evans

Save

video

Human rights and justice

A reporter orphaned by night raids in Afghanistan investigates their cruel legacy

17 minutes

Save

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

Save

video

Work

Does capitalism make ‘non-playable characters’ of us all? An uncanny exploration

21 minutes

Save

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

Black-and-white photo of a man and a woman, seen from behind, on the deck of a boat, looking out to shore
Save

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

Save

video

Architecture

‘I listen to the land’ – poetry and greenery intertwine in Emilio Ambasz’s architecture

9 minutes

Close-up of an orange Mercedes car with the focus on the front tyre, which is inscribed with ‘In Crypto We Trust’
Save

essay

Economics

The cruelty of crypto

Selling itself as the new American dream, crypto exposes the vulnerable to fraud and scams, and loads risk onto the poor

Rachel O’Dwyer

Save

video

Design and fashion

The ornate, the aromatic, the cruel – Valentine’s cards before the age of Hallmark

16 minutes