Written for laymen, read by women and kings, Christian Wolff’s mathematical method made him a key Enlightenment philosopher - by Michael Walschots Read at Aeon | Continue reading
How the mechanic-poet William Blake harnessed the physicality of the printing press to make his own illustrated books - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Eager for medical breakthroughs, some doctors take enormous risks experimenting on themselves. Should we celebrate them? - by Tom Doyle Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Anarchy in the UK – and beyond. The historian Sophie Scott-Brown on why liberal democracies could benefit from anarchism - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Finance fraud is not a deviation from an essentially rational system but a window onto the reality-distortion of markets - by Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The detection of alien life won’t be obvious. It’ll be partial and inconclusive: a perfect task for the scientific method - by Jaime Green Read at Aeon | Continue reading
This Aeon Video exclusive explores the history and legacy of a beautiful project to record thousands of new fruit varieties - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Displacing and destroying peoples by colonisation is not just a historical Western evil but a global and contemporary one - by Lachlan McNamee Read at Aeon | Continue reading
‘A hand that touches mother cow will be severed’: how Hindu beliefs about holy cows are being used to radicalise Indian boys - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Infertility treatments aim to improve women’s lives. But they risk tying womanhood to the toxic expectation of motherhood - by Gulzaar Barn Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The remarkable story of one man’s self-imposed exile on an uninhabited island after being wrongly suspected of a crime - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
How Eugene V Debs turned American republicanism against the chiefs of capitalism – and became a true crusader for freedom - by Tom O’Shea Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end - by Rachael Scarborough King & Seth Rudy Read at Aeon | Continue reading
From Valhalla to mind uploads, why does the notion that death is not the end of consciousness refuse to kick the bucket? - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Whenever I stand in a flat landscape, I feel myself becoming weightless, taken out of my childhood full of painful nothing - by Noreen Masud Read at Aeon | Continue reading
A hike through a Japanese forest is a love letter to Miyazaki’s classic ‘Princess Mononoke’ and its source of inspiration - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
One day, my hand stopped speaking to my brain. As a doctor and flute player, I had to understand this strange affliction - by Lynn Hallarman Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Seven-segment displays are a nifty and efficient solution to a design challenge, but is a better version possible? - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In post-communist eastern and central Europe, history is intensely personal and economics is saturated with moral feeling - by Till Hilmar Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Imperial Russia had little access to the bountiful tropics that other empires enjoyed. So it created its own in the Caucasus - by Oleksandr Polianichev Read at Aeon | Continue reading
By turning a hose, concrete and jelly into trumpets, this video melds science, history and art to explain the physics of music - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Long derided as mere coincidences, acrostics in ancient poetry are finally being taken seriously – with astonishing results - by Julia Hejduk Read at Aeon | Continue reading
This video provides a short, colourful history of Chinoiserie, 17th-century Europe’s fanciful interpretation of Chinese design - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
The culture around breast cancer is full of positivity and femininity. But it comes at the expense of the marginalised - by Philippa Hetherington Read at Aeon | Continue reading
‘Devotion can help guide you to any destination.’ This cinematic short follows the 200 km Sufi pilgrimage through southern Pakistan - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
There is always a demand for more jobs. But what makes a job good? For that, Immanuel Kant has an answer - by Tyler Re Read at Aeon | Continue reading
From chopsocky films to disco earworms, Asian caricatures have proliferated since the 1970s. Can Hollywood kick the habit? - by Stephanie Wong Read at Aeon | Continue reading
‘Photography will not be the rescuer of the world’: why challenging colonialism requires a great ‘unlearning’ of the past - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality - by William Egginton Read at Aeon | Continue reading
This short film is part of a unique art project that explores the question of whether ants have aesthetic preferences - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst - by Brett Gary Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The seemingly trivial 19th-century map puzzle that inspired the first major computer-assisted mathematical proof - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
The Greeks and Romans portrayed these elusive priests as bogeymen who bathed in their victims’ blood. Who were they really? - by Miranda Aldhouse-Green Read at Aeon | Continue reading
After surviving a plane crash, a filmmaker experiences a radical shift in consciousness and a newfound acceptance of death - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
The concept of the atomic void is one of the most repeated mistakes in popular science. Molecules are packed with stuff - by Mario Barbatti Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Urban dystopia or tight-knit community? Step into Kowloon Walled City, a place shaped by geopolitics and human ingenuity - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In the face of climate crisis it might seem myopic but philosophers from Spinoza to Næss argue it is the only way forward - by Helen De Cruz Read at Aeon | Continue reading
How the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland provides freedom and space for artists with disabilities to develop their craft - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Slum photography was at the heart of progressive campaigns against urban poverty. And it was a weapon against poor people - by Sadie Levy Gale Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Suffering the sudden death of a loved person leaves some survivors stuck in grief. Can they win their lives back – and how? - by Martin W Angler Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Bubbles of paint form an otherworldly visualisation of the ambient music of Brian Eno in this short film - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Is this the word we need to describe unprecedented convergences between ecological, political and economic strife? - by Ville Lähde Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Tearing down ideas is central to scientific practice, but when it bleeds into the interpersonal, science loses its humanity - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Liberal philosophy has clipped the wings of the egalitarian ideal. We should return to the bolder ideals of Iris Murdoch - by Christine Sypnowich Read at Aeon | Continue reading
In this 1969 clip, English children give answers to questions on religion with unguarded, and often quite amusing, candour - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
When we think of changes in Earth’s history as changes of dynasty we miss out on understanding how life really works - by Riley Black Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The work of John Rawls shows that liberal values of equality and freedom are fundamentally incompatible with capitalism - by Colin Bradley Read at Aeon | Continue reading
A 1,000-year-old tale of love, murder and loyalty from the Icelandic sagas comes to life in the words of a modern storyteller - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading