Essays
essay
Thinkers and theories
Philosopher of the apocalypse
From the ashes of the Second World War, Günther Anders forecast a new catastrophe: technology would overwhelm its creators
Audrey Borowski
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Earth science and climate
A new Earth rises
How did the planet replace the nation-state to become the prime political object of the 21st century?
Erik Isberg
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Mood and emotion
When hope gets in the way
Hope is usually seen as a positive agent of change that spares us from pain. But it can also undermine healing and growth
Santiago Delboy
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Quantum theory
Quantum Wittgenstein
Metaphysical debates in quantum physics don’t get at ‘truth’ – they’re nothing but a form of ritual, activity and culture
Timothy Andersen
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Human rights and justice
Breakfast with the Panthers
It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California
Suzanne Cope
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Thinkers and theories
Since Derrida
A golden generation of French philosophers dismantled truth and other traditional ideas. What next for their successors?
Peter Salmon
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Animals and humans
Against human exceptionalism
In a tight spot, you’d probably intuit that a human life outweighs an animal’s. There are good arguments why that’s wrong
Jeff Sebo
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Cities
Energised crowding
To understand why early cities thrived, look not to the temples of kings but to their subjects’ bustling neighbourhoods
Michael E Smith
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Poverty and development
A fairly fed world
Last year, 200 million children did not get enough to eat, yet it would be cheap and easy for the world to feed them all
Sharman Apt Russell
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Love and friendship
Tainted love
Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands
Anna Machin
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Biology
The split-body problem
Why we need to stop thinking about parents, offspring and sex when we try to understand how life reproduces itself
Gunnar O Babcock
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Virtues and vices
Look on the dark side
We must keep the flame of pessimism burning: it is a virtue for our deeply troubled times, when crude optimism is a vice
Mara van der Lugt