Apparently a “vibe shift” is about to take place. Both fashion and culture attitudes are about to change, as they always eventually do. The question is, how do we know when it’s about to happen – can we really predict fashion changes and cultural shifts? …
When cosmologists try to make sense of the universe and its origin, they look at entropy and the number of different ways a universe like ours could arise. It is usually thought that blackholes and dark energy make the most significant contribution to the …
It’s a truth that’s increasingly staring us in the face: Liberal democracies seem unable to take the necessary steps to prevent further, potentially catastrophic climate change. If we continue our consumption of fossil fuels along the current trajectory, …
The hard problem of consciousness is the most pressing unsolved mystery in both philosophy and science. To solve such a problem, we are going to need revolutionary ways of thinking. Philosopher of mind, Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, argues higher spatial …
Since art’s inception, we have always found ways to arbitrarily limit its scope. As there’s been no agreed definition of art, the most popular answer to the question: ‘is it art?’ is ‘who cares?’. This, argues James Tartaglia, is a mistake. Articulating a …
This war is not about territory, it is about identity. Putin has made no secret of the fact that he does not recognise Ukraine as an independent nation, with its own history and culture. The war against Ukraine is his attempt to prove that the country is …
Thomas Hobbes famously described the state of nature – the imagined condition of humankind before the existence of central governments – as “war of every man against every man”. This has led many political theorists to think that war is simply the human …
A developing narrative about why Putin invaded Ukraine is that his thinking was influenced by fascist Russian philosophers. But that account is both reductive and lacking in evidence. Alexander Dugin, the man who’s been called the brains behind Putin, has …
English is the language of analytic philosophy. 97% of citations in prestigious analytic philosophy journals are of works written in English, and 96% of the journals’ board members reside in English-speaking countries. That might be simply because of …
The existence of play in non-human animals is a direct challenge to old-fashioned scientific ideas. Play is dismissed as a human projection or as functional practice for adulthood that only ‘higher” mammals are capable of. Not so, writes Gordon Burghardt, …
For the past thirty years the Western strategy towards Russia and China was to try and incorporate them into the global, liberal, democratic order by developing deep economic ties with the two countries. That strategy has failed. Russia and China became …
What if we could tell the history of philosophy through the history of philosophers’ love lives? Like the rest of us, philosophers are mere humans, driven by their bodies and desires, not just their rational minds. Looking at the unrequited love of …
Elon Musk is designing an electronic brain implant. The implant could help people with disabilities, improve our cognitive abilities and even lead to a form of digital immortality. But the technology is not without its dangers. The ability for a select few …
Any educated person would laugh at the idea of an all-encompassing, scientific, medical recreational or business ‘spectrum’. Yet, for some reason, our society is obsessed by the ‘left-right’ political divide. This dichotomy only reinforces our tribal …
According to French philosopher Jacques Derrida, western metaphysics has suffered from a long-standing hung-up. Philosophers from Plato onwards have idealised the present, positing it as an ideal, pure, timeless form of reality, to be contrasted with the …
China is still claiming neutrality when it comes to Russia’s war against Ukraine. As that position is becoming increasingly unconvincing, the US is putting pressure on China to choose sides, threatening with economic sanctions if it continues its tacit …
Desire is aroused in us from all directions. We are seduced by more than just potential partners. We are seduced by politicians, advertisers, cult leaders… and this seduction holds moral weight. Sarah LaChance Adams argues for the rules of engagement of a …
While we think of ourselves as being the rational animal, we humans falll victim to all sorts of biases. From the Dunning-Kruger Effect to Confirmation Bias, there are countless psychological traps waiting for us along the path to true rationality. And …
The war has forced Ukrainian leaders like President Zelensky and Kiev’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, to face decisions of existential proportions. Should they stand up to Putin, thus risking the lives of themselves and their citizens, or surrender, thus …
‘The German Ideology’ is a retrieved set of manuscripts by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published some 87 years after they were originally written. Some scholars argue the collection of manuscripts should not be considered a real text at all. Others, …
