Essays

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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

A woman in a flowing white dress skateboarding past people walking on a sunny day next to a corrugated fence.

essayHistory of ideas

A duty to oneself

African philosophical values of harmony and vitality have much to offer our thinking about what we owe to ourselves

Thaddeus Metz

A passenger pigeon egg against a gradient background with a handwritten label in French detailing its origin.

essayBiology

Reversing extinction

Technologies of preserving and reviving organisms are already redefining the meaning of life, death, and extinction itself

Sadiah Qureshi

Sepia-toned photo of silhouetted figures dancing with sticks in a smoky environment, creating a dramatic atmosphere.

essayAnthropology

Does culture make emotion?

Franz Boas helps us solve the puzzle of where our emotional lives originate: in our selves or in the cultures around us

Noga Arikha

Black and white photo of a chalkboard filled with complex mathematical equations and diagrams.

essayMathematics

The eye of the mathematician

Is mathematical beauty real? Or is it just a subjective, human ‘wow’ that is becoming redundant in an AI age?

Rita Ahmadi

Surgeons in blue attire performing an operation in a theatre, with medical tools visible.

essayBioethics

Savage care

Neat ethical principles have nothing to say to doctors like me, faced with the brutal, bloody compromises of hospital life

Ronald W Dworkin

An older woman sitting on steps, speaking to journalists holding microphones and cameras outside a house.

essayBiography and memoir

On her own terms

Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook remains shocking, necessary and imperfect – a dazzling experiment in living as a woman

Catherine Taylor

A destroyed house with an American flag amid debris and destruction under a clear blue sky.

essayEconomics

The insurance catastrophe

Whole regions of the world are now uninsurable, bringing radical uncertainty to the economy. How do we fix the problem?

Gavin Evans

A person in a red jacket walking by a seated woman in traditional attire on a stone path with mountains in the background.

essayNations and empires

Who is Walter Mignolo?

A prominent architect of decolonial theory, his diagnosis of European colonial ills is both penetrating and flawed

Federico Perelmuter

Black and white photo of a man in a prison uniform surrounded by security personnel in a courtroom setting.

essayPersonality

There are no psychopaths

Virtually everything you think you know about psychopathy has been thoroughly debunked. Why does this zombie idea live on?

Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen

Painting of a historical figure in a red and gold outfit with a patterned hat set against a muted background.

essayPolitics and government

The presence of power

The Indian thinker Rammohun Roy believed that good governance must be close: distance made the British Empire cruel

Shomik Dasgupta

A couple hugging by a lake under a cloudy sky with a person standing by a lamppost nearby.

essayMeaning and the good life

The six-second hug

From art to religion to sex, instrumentalisation has drained away intrinsic value. But life is about more than material benefits

Julian Baggini

A fox walking through dry grass in a natural setting with its mouth open and ears perked up.

essayEcology and environmental sciences

Conservation’s prejudice

Ecology is pervaded by a nativist dogma against invasive species that distorts the science and undermines wildness

Carlos Santana