For most of its history western philosophy was dominated by metaphysics, the attempt to know the necessary features of the world simply by thinking. Then came Kant, who showed that reason alone can’t gain knowledge of the world without the help of …
Stories of scientific discovery often turn on moments of imagination, dreams and the unreal. This is no coincidence. Discovery and invention use the power of the unreal to usher new things into existence. Scientists stand outside the boundaries of the real …
Art lovers and philosophers alike tend to think there is an educational benefit to consuming quality fiction. The claim seems to be that fiction has the ability to morally educate us: to make us more understanding, more empathetic. But while fiction can …
On Tuesday January 18, The World Economic Forum is hosting a panel discussion on Renewing a Global Social Contract. The concept of a social contract has its origins in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, who used it to justify the …
The idea that there is a Book of the World containing all the world’s facts, and that science is the way to discover the contents of that book, dates back to Galileo. That belief, that reality can be exhaustively described by science, has gone hand in hand …
Most interpretations of quantum mechanics have taken non-locality – “spooky action at a distance” – as a brute fact about the way the world is. But there is another way. Take seriously quantum theory’s higher-dimensional models, and we could make sense of …
From as early as Plato’s Republic, philosophers have pointed out that family relations pose a threat to justice. Today those concerns have mostly to do with equality: Some parents are able to offer their children advantages such as a private education, …
Squid Game, Parasite and BTS… they’re all part of the K-wave. An influx of Korean culture has entered the West, bringing with it Korean cultural norms, thought and soft power. Soon, Korean philosophy will be next. The fruits of this influx of culture will …
Our choices and actions are often influenced by factors we aren’t conscious of. That has lead some philosophers to claim that we can’t possibly be held morally accountable for those actions since we didn’t freely and consciously choose them. But that would …
Historical fiction is still fiction. Yet the amount of detailed research that goes into the period and characters that writers develop, and the realistic nature of the final product, leads viewers and readers to treat it as history proper. We might think …
In the modern era, when most of us have come to value equality, hierarchical societies are synonymous with unjust ones. And yet, history and social research show us that hierarchical societies are the most efficient ones, and that attempts to abolish …
The men who dominated British philosophy from the 1920s to the 1950s all agreed: there is a strict dichotomy between facts and values. The world itself contains only facts, values arise only from our own subjective judgements. But four brilliant women …
The Epicureans would do Christmas very differently than most people assume. Sure, they were hedonists, they were all for pleasure. But for them that didn’t involve lavish meals and copious amounts of drink. They weren’t averse to fine dining if it happened …
Through an in-depth look at the inner workings of psychoanalysis, and a look into the logic of CBT, we are able to compare the two. While CBT will work for some with its more practical focus, others will benefit more from psychoanalysis’ deep look into the …
Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival. And yet millions of people around the world who aren’t Christian or religious celebrate it. The church sees it as a sign of our decadent times, while Nietzsche saw it as evidence that religion still has its …
A work of philosophical genius according to some, a work of art according to others. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus was published 100 years ago, in 1921. It’s a book that according to its own philosophy of language, is mostly …
What are the Christmas holidays about? St Augustine reminds us that Christmas is, for believers, the celebration of a metaphysical miracle: of God becoming man. For those of a more secular sensibility, Christmas has become a tradition untethered from …
The materialist assumption that consciousness is produced by the brain is on the decline. New theories, such as panpsychism, the idea that consciousness exists throughout the physical universe, are on the rise. But what about other alternatives? The notion …
Putin has been winning in Ukraine. The country is nowhere near joining NATO, a western goal only a few years ago, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea is a geopolitical fact. Putin is also a master in using military force in ways that don’t quite cross over …
From treating the body as a machine to the contemporary obsession with neuroscience, hidden philosophical assumptions are exposed when we think about pain and its treatment. A new conceptualisation called the enactive approach brings together advances in …
