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Nigel Warburton

Consultant Editor and Interviewer, Aeon+Psyche

Nigel is a writer, philosopher and podcaster. He is interviewer for the popular Philosophy Bites podcast. His books include A Little History of Philosophy, The Art Question and Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction. Nigel is on Twitter @philosophybites.

Written by Nigel Warburton

Edited by Nigel Warburton

Photo of deep space with a pale blue dot in the distance against a dark background, featuring faint light streaks.

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Cosmology

Just a pale blue dot

When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance?

Tim Bayne

Ancient stone sculpture of a reclining female figure on a smooth surface against a grey background.

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Thinkers and theories

The truth about love

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?

Armand D’Angour

Photo of people walking outdoors carrying trays of plants, surrounded by bushes and greenery.

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Meaning and the good life

Welcome to the Chaoscene

The climate crisis is here. In order to thrive in these dangerous and precarious times, we must build resilient communities

Rupert Read

A cheetah cub playfully interacts with a brown dog on grass, with a toy in the background.

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Bioethics

Why the cat wags her tail

Here’s a puzzle: how could evolution favour such a costly, frivolous and fun activity as animal play?

Mathilde Tahar-Malaussena

A child in a pink raincoat jumping in a puddle on a city street on a rainy day with terraced houses in the background.

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Philosophy of mind

Suffused with causality

Humans have a superpower that makes us uniquely capable of controlling the world: our ability to understand cause and effect

Mariel Goddu

A cupcake with pink icing topped with mealworms, surrounded by other cupcakes.

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Food and drink

Adjust your disgust

The future of food is nutritious and sustainable – if we can overcome our instinctual revulsion to insects and lab-grown meat

Alexandra Plakias

Black and white photo of people gathered by the Berlin Wall, a couple embracing in the foreground.

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Thinkers and theories

The necessity of Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy is dynamic and challenging, but also elegant and lucidly written: she is the thinker of our time

Brandon Robshaw

Photo of fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

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Human evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

Black-and-white photo of two women preening a toddler who is sitting on a wall and sucking dummy, with a brick house and a washing line in the background.

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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

Photograph of two silhouetted figures on a sunlit path surrounded by dark geometric shadows and structures.

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Knowledge

The penumbral plunge

Diving into the ring of darkness beyond things easily answerable, asking ‘Why?’ questions is what make humans awesome

Eric Schwitzgebel

Photo of Daniel Dennett looking to the side with a white beard and glasses wearing a suit against a black background.

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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

Black and white photo of a large group of boys and a few adults standing on bare ground, all dressed in 1960s attire.

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Education

A valiant experiment

The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa

David Dyzenhaus