According to Michio Kaku, our universe is one of many. The best way to make sense of quantum mechanics and the ability of subatomic particles to exist in several different states at the same time is to postulate the existence of a multiverse. These …
Synthetic data – the use of AI to create datasets that mimic real world data – is rapidly becoming a much bigger part of our daily lives. But this form of data raises critical philosophical and ethical questions that will shape the future for all of us, …
For Sartre we are trapped between being subjects with experience and objects of experience. We are consciousness, but we are also physical bodies. We are free, but also limited. In order to escape this duality, we must transcend ourselves through love, …
A new experimental result has shaken the world of particle physics. The W boson, it turns out, is a lot heavier than we thought. This poses a challenge to our most successful and tested theory about the fabric of the universe so far: the Standard Model. …
Does liberalism without individualism, human rights at its foundation, and a belief that the state should stay out of people’s lives even make sense? Joseph Raz, who died on May 2nd, believed it did. Raz was a world-renowned legal and political …
Elon Musk is trying to frame his $44bn takeover of Twitter – what he dubs the “digital town square” - as a crusade to protect free speech. Musk, who is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, has implied that Twitter should amend its content moderation …
From the pronouns we use to describe our friends, to masculinization or feminization of abstract nouns, gender is undoubtedly a concept buried deeply into the structure of many languages. Yet, some languages have evolved to incorporate it more than others. …
Can art help us make sense of war? War itself is a senseless act, and therefore looking to art to decipher its meaning, might be pointless. At the same time, art can communicate the reality of war in ways that journalism can’t. Art can also provide us with …
Once depression or anxiety hits, a feedback loop from hell can begin. We start to feel depressed about being depressed, anxious about feeling anxious. Fighting a negative experience is a negative experience in itself. To prevent this feedback loop, we …
Who should decide whether abortion is legal or not? According to a leaked document, the US Supreme Court is about to answer that question in a new and controversial way: voters. This will overturn the status quo since 1973, when the Supreme Court decided …
Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore saw their revolt against Hegelian idealism, and their embrace of realism, as ushering in a ‘new philosophy’, what eventually became known as ‘analytic philosophy’. For Hegel and his followers, reality only made sense as a …
Elon Musk’s imminent purchase of Twitter, and his view that free speech online should extend as far as the law allows, has led some progressive thinkers to exclaim their despair. But not so long ago, the fundamental distrust of anyone who wanted to …
Oil and gas have been at the heart of geopolitical conflicts. Russia’s war against Ukraine is the most recent example: EU countries are scrambling to decouple themselves from energy dependence on a hostile Russia. Many believe that an eventual transition …
Quantum mechanics suggests that particles can be in a state of superposition - in two states at the same time - until a measurement take place. Only then does the wavefunction describing the particle collapses into one of the two states. According to the …
The West claims that Putin’s war against Ukraine means that Russia is now isolated by the international community. But in fact, the exact opposite is happening. Most of the world is either pro-Russia or neutral with regards to the war in Ukraine. India’s …
The dominant interpretation of the quantum wave function sees it as real – as part of the physical furniture of the universe. Some even go as far as to argue that the entire universe is a quantum wave function. But this interpretation runs into a number of …
As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, much of the focus has been on the apparent war crimes being committed. This line of thinking can be seen to suggest that the problem here is excessive violence, not the war itself. In his famous War and Peace, Leo …
The issue of free-will is perhaps the most fundamental question in Philosophy. We hold ourselves and others accountable for our various successes and mishaps, yet determinists hold that we aren’t in control of our own actions. How can we make sense of this …
The French election results have been interpreted through the lens of US and UK politics, but this framework ignores the political strategy that led Macron to victory. The diagnosis of a fracture between the educated, urban cosmopolitans and the rural, …
As digital technology takes over our lives, we are increasingly drawn to the analogue technology of the past. Vinyl records, physical books and Moleskine notebooks are all enjoying a revival. We might be quick to dismiss this as a fad or harmless nostalgia …
