Philosophy
video
Spirituality
Through rituals of prayer, a monk cultivates a quietly radical concept of freedom
4 minutes
essay
Mathematics
Beyond causality
In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics
Gordon Gillespie
essay
Thinkers and theories
So many unmarried men
For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors
Ellie Robson
essay
Public health
A very American fear
Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?
Rebecca L Davis
video
Art
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
essay
History of science
The birth of naturalism
The modern era is often seen as the triumph of science over supernaturalism. But what really happened is far more interesting
Peter Harrison
video
Ethics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The listening gift
It is the dark matter of conversation, the white space around a poem. For Rilke, listening is receiving the divine
Faith Lawrence
essay
Politics and government
The end of neoliberalism?
The case of Mexico shows that, despite a proliferating discourse that it is over, neoliberalism is as relentless as ever
Inés Escobar González
essay
Chemistry
Chemical laws
Often dismissed as the poor cousin of the sciences, chemistry has revealed natural laws that illuminate our Universe
Vanessa A Seifert
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Psychodynamic nonsense
After decades of practising psychotherapy, I believe it has little foundation in science and often causes harm
Niklas Serning
video
Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
essay
Metaphysics
The truth about fiction
What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself
Hannah H Kim
essay
Knowledge
The penumbral plunge
Diving into the ring of darkness beyond things easily answerable, asking ‘Why?’ questions is what make humans awesome
Eric Schwitzgebel
video
Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
essay
Bioethics
Moral resilience
Nurses experience deep suffering when they can’t act according to their moral compass. Our research shows a way forward
Cynda Hylton Rushton
essay
Global history
There are no pure cultures
All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history
Inanna Hamati-Ataya
video
Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
essay
Philosophy of science
Aha = wow
We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them
Bridget Ritz & Brandon Vaidyanathan
essay
History
Why history is always political
In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life
Rosario López
essay
Stories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke
essay
Philosophy of mind
The stories of Daniel Dennett
Often metaphorical and allusive, the philosopher’s work will long be remembered for how it grappled with everyday thought
Tim Bayne
essay
Dance and theatre
Why the old man dances
Religious ritual to appease the gods or free expression of human agency? For the ancient Romans, dance could be both
Karin Schlapbach
video
Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes