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Nigel Warburton

Consultant Editor and Interviewer, Aeon+Psyche

Nigel is a writer, philosopher and podcaster. He is interviewer for the popular Philosophy Bites podcast. His books include A Little History of Philosophy, The Art Question and Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction. Nigel is on Twitter @philosophybites.

See Nigel Warburton’s profile on Psyche

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Written by Nigel Warburton

A lone person standing in front of a row of tanks on a wide city street with a bus in the background.

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Art

Moments of depth

Stuart Franklin has photographed conflict, nature and people. He discusses what makes a memorable image

Stuart Franklin & Nigel Warburton

A cosy room with a patterned couch covered in colourful rugs and cushions, next to shelves of books and sculptures.

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Wellbeing

Is philosophy therapy, or is it simply a search for truth?

Nigel Warburton & Jules Evans

A café with wax figures of men seated at tables. A bar at the back has more figures, all in a vintage setting.

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History of ideas

Talk with me

Philosophy should be conversation, not dogma – face-to-face talk about our place in the cosmos and how we should live

Nigel Warburton

People queuing outside a crumbled building amid rubble under a clear sky, showcasing a post-disaster scene in a hot country.

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Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitans

It’s not just me, you and everyone we know. Citizens of the world have moral obligations to a wider circle of humanity

Nigel Warburton

Edited by Nigel Warburton

People collecting water from a makeshift station in a camp, surrounded by orange netting and tents in the background.

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Ethics

Moral refuge

You can believe in border control yet protect those fleeing to safety. So what is our ethical obligation to refugees?

Bradley Hillier-Smith

Painting of a girl with a pearl earring in an ornate frame, viewed by three people in a gallery setting.

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Art

The ecstatic swoon

As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead

Robert D Zaretsky

Abstract colourful illustration showing various sections of a face and a black cat with lines and geometric shapes, from the perspective of someone peeing into a box.

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Physics

The cat that wouldn’t die

The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?

Jim Baggott

Photo of deep space with a pale blue dot in the distance against a dark background, featuring faint light streaks.

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Cosmology

Just a pale blue dot

When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance?

Tim Bayne

Ancient stone sculpture of a reclining female figure on a smooth surface against a grey background.

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Thinkers and theories

The truth about love

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?

Armand D’Angour

Photo of people walking outdoors carrying trays of plants, surrounded by bushes and greenery.

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Meaning and the good life

Welcome to the Chaoscene

The climate crisis is here. In order to thrive in these dangerous and precarious times, we must build resilient communities

Rupert Read

A cheetah cub playfully interacts with a brown dog on grass, with a toy in the background.

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Bioethics

Why the cat wags her tail

Here’s a puzzle: how could evolution favour such a costly, frivolous and fun activity as animal play?

Mathilde Tahar-Malaussena

A child in a pink raincoat jumping in a puddle on a city street on a rainy day with terraced houses in the background.

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Philosophy of mind

Suffused with causality

Humans have a superpower that makes us uniquely capable of controlling the world: our ability to understand cause and effect

Mariel Goddu

A cupcake with pink icing topped with mealworms, surrounded by other cupcakes.

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Food and drink

Adjust your disgust

The future of food is nutritious and sustainable – if we can overcome our instinctual revulsion to insects and lab-grown meat

Alexandra Plakias

Black and white photo of people gathered by the Berlin Wall, a couple embracing in the foreground.

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Thinkers and theories

The necessity of Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy is dynamic and challenging, but also elegant and lucidly written: she is the thinker of our time

Brandon Robshaw

Photo of fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

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Human evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

Black-and-white photo of two women preening a toddler who is sitting on a wall and sucking dummy, with a brick house and a washing line in the background.

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Thinkers and theories

So many unmarried men

For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors

Ellie Robson