There is more that unites than divides analytic and continental feminist philosophies – not least efforts to define ‘woman’ | Continue reading
People in the Middle Ages took great care over cleanliness – except the clergy, who accepted filth as a sign of devotion | Continue reading
Philosophical writing should move toward the epistolary, to read less like a monograph, and more like a dialogue with oneself | Continue reading
Following the conquest of Mesoamerica, the Spanish attempted to eradicate indigenous dance as part of their imposition of Catholicism. When it proved impossible to extinguish, evangelisers instead altered the dances to include Christian symbolism and themes. Remnants of these syn … | Continue reading
People in the Middle Ages took great care over cleanliness – except the clergy, who accepted filth as a sign of devotion | Continue reading
Philosophical writing should move toward the epistolary, to read less like a monograph, and more like a dialogue with oneself | Continue reading
Civilisations evolve through strategic forgetting of once-vital life skills. But can machines do all our remembering? | Continue reading
Warning: this film features rapidly flashing images that can be distressing to photosensitive viewers.This impressively researched work of digital art from the UK filmmaker Daniel McKee features more than 2,000 flags sourced from Wikipedia and meticulously arranged, yielding a vi … | Continue reading
Civilisations evolve through strategic forgetting of once-vital life skills. But can machines do all our remembering? | Continue reading
Even with loving parents and caring therapists, a child whose diagnosis came too late can lose the fight | Continue reading
The Inkas’ mysterious knotted khipus were a 3D record-keeping code so sophisticated, we still haven’t managed to crack it | Continue reading
Much of what we think of as Ancient Greek poetry, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, was composed to be sung, frequently with the accompaniment of musical instruments. And while the Greeks left modern classicists many indications that music was omnipresent in society – from vas … | Continue reading
Although created for animators aiming to perfect their rendering of animal gaits, this tutorial is filled with little surprises that even the artistically disinclined can enjoy. Skillfully combining illustration, biology and physics, the US animator Stephen Cunnane’s short video … | Continue reading
Lacking confidence? Need an ego boost? Take a leaf out of the autobiographer’s book and write about chapters of your life | Continue reading
Wry observations on daily life, sly turns of phrase, and aptly hurled swear words – a lot of what's in the sets performed by the Greek-born, Edinburgh-based comedian Leah Kalaitzi is standard fare for stand-up comedy. However, as a deaf woman communicating in British Sign Languag … | Continue reading
More than false choices and options, the highest freedom lies in being true to oneself and defying the expectations of others | Continue reading
Does consciousness work like predictive coding in AI: as an inner mechanism of doubt sorting perception from belief? | Continue reading
Does consciousness work like predictive coding in AI: as an inner mechanism of doubt sorting perception from belief? | Continue reading
In 20th-century Turkey, modernisers turned to eugenics and claims of an ancient Asian past to argue that Turks were white | Continue reading
‘Until a generation ago, it seemed indecipherable...’In 1960, humanity was on the cusp of achieving something momentous. After centuries of stargazing – and two decades of flying some airplanes very high – our species was finally preparing to blast through Earth's atmosphere. The … | Continue reading
‘Until a generation ago, it seemed indecipherable...’In 1960, humanity was on the cusp of achieving something momentous. After centuries of stargazing – and two decades of flying some airplanes very high – our species was finally preparing to blast through Earth's atmosphere. The … | Continue reading
Before Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, came Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy, the feral child of philosophy, and his radical, island isolation | Continue reading
Some critics say that terms such as ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘front hole’ erase cis women’s identities. Here’s why we disagree | Continue reading
Market systems have made better use of more information than economic planners. What if AI and machine learning changed that? | Continue reading
For centuries, dogs were like a rainbow: variations on a type. Then the Victorians invented the modern dog breeds of today | Continue reading
Ockham’s Razor says that simplicity is a scientific virtue, but justifying this philosophically is strangely elusive | Continue reading
One of the techniques for which Vincent van Gogh is celebrated is his evocative and striking use of colour contrast. In many of his most famous works – including Café Terrace at Night (1888), The Starry Night (1889) and Irises (1889) – his palette is soothing and inviting, yieldi … | Continue reading
For centuries, dogs were like a rainbow: variations on a type. Then the Victorians invented the modern dog breeds of today | Continue reading
Market systems have made better use of more information than economic planners. What if AI and machine learning changed that? | Continue reading
A generation of schoolchildren is being exhorted to believe in their brain’s elasticity. Does it really help them learn? | Continue reading
After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States' departments of Defense and of Justice launched a series of unprecedented initiatives aimed at fighting terrorism, including US Constitution-bending rendition, torture and detainment programmes. Eighteen years la … | Continue reading
To call Chaucer the father of English literature sells him short. We should celebrate him as a great European poet | Continue reading
When Walter Benjamin fled France in 1940, he took a heavy black suitcase. Did it contain a typescript? Where is it now? | Continue reading
Despite its reputation as remote and anti-intellectual, Australia has exercised a surprisingly deep influence on philosophy | Continue reading
Self-driving cars don’t drink and medical AIs are never overtired. Given our obvious flaws, what can humans still do best? | Continue reading
Written by Emily Dickinson during the depths of the US Civil War, the untitled poem known as ‘We Grow Accustomed to the Dark’ conjures hope and perseverance amid waves of chaos and uncertainty. In this animation, the UK filmmaker and illustrator Hannah Jacobs visualises the poem … | Continue reading
Self-driving cars don’t drink and medical AIs are never overtired. Given our obvious flaws, what can humans still do best? | Continue reading
The right to know and the right not to know: how national genetic sampling initiatives test the limits of nondisclosure | Continue reading
When Walter Benjamin fled France in 1940, he took a heavy black suitcase. Did it contain a typescript? Where is it now? | Continue reading
Should rivers have rights? Why the ‘human’ cannot continue to be the benchmark for the entitlements of other beings | Continue reading
Despite its reputation as remote and anti-intellectual, Australia has exercised a surprisingly deep influence on philosophy | Continue reading
This tongue-in-cheek animation from the US YouTuber Henry Reich – the mind behind MinutePhysics – is a creative exercise in how not to lose your cool when faced with the abyss of illogic. Recalling the mundane, mindnumbing tribulations of trying to get a straight answer on billin … | Continue reading
So many arguments are given against Shakespeare being gay – yet his sonnets contain their own message, that love is love | Continue reading
The problem with neurointerventions is not the loss of control, since we’re not fully in control anyway | Continue reading
Warning: this video is not for the squeamish.Mayflies make a quick and nutritious snack for crickets. But, rather unfortunately for the cricket population of California, some mayflies are home to hairworms (nematomorphs) – parasitic creatures that will stop at nothing to make the … | Continue reading
How often to amend a constitution? India changes its constitution all the time, while the US has let its become a relic | Continue reading
As preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics were transforming swathes of Beijing, the Portuguese filmmaker Sérgio Cruz was exploring the city’s streets and public spaces with his camera. Taking an observational approach, Cruz found a metropolis undergoing rapid development, whil … | Continue reading
Greco-Roman gods had no interest in the poor nor was organised charity a religious duty. How was Christianity different? | Continue reading