Sam Dresser
Senior Editor, Aeon+Psyche
Sam has been with Aeon since its launch in 2012. He’s most interested in how to do philosophy and in the continental/analytic divide. History and politics are also amusing to him. He considers Evelyn Waugh to be a very funny writer and enjoys pubs more than he should.
Written by Sam Dresser
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Thinkers and theories
Peak ellipsis
Does philosophy reside in the unsayable or should it care only for precision? Carnap, Heidegger and the great divergence
Sam Dresser
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Anthropology
The meaning of Margaret Mead
Mead argued that non-Western cultures offered alternative (often better) ways to be human. Why was she so vilified for it?
Sam Dresser
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Thinkers and theories
Freud versus Jung: a bitter feud over the meaning of sex
Sam Dresser
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History of ideas
How Camus and Sartre split up over the question of how to be free
Sam Dresser
Edited by Sam Dresser
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Death
The last letter
Condemned to death by firing squad, French resistance fighters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live
Daniel R Brunstetter
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Philosophy of mind
By the light of brahman
Ideas from classical Indian philosophy help illuminate the enigmas of selfhood, consciousness and the nature of reality
Anand Vaidya & Manjula Menon
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Dance and theatre
What actors know
Acting is an ancient and intrinsically human way to establish vibrant connections with one another. And it’s available to us all
John Britton
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History of ideas
Ghosts among the philosophers
Cambridge, home of analytic philosophy, was also a hotbed of psychical research. How did this spooky subject take root?
Matyáš Moravec
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Psychiatry and psychotherapy
The art in the analyst’s room
The consulting office reflects the personality of the therapist, while also subtly shaping the experience of their patients
Anna Parker
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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
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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
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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
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Stories and literature
Elegance and hustle
How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world
Max McGuinness
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Cognition and intelligence
The power of prayer
Praying is a cognitive practice full of problem-solving resources. You can learn from it even if you don’t want to do it
Eleanor Schille-Hudson
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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
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Future of technology
A linkless internet
In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum
Collin Jennings