Philosophy For Our Times

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think science is based on facts and evidence. But from gravity to dark matter, string theory to parallel universes, its theories are curiously bereft of hard evidence. Is evidence less important than we think and conjecture alone capable of leading to greater understanding? Or has science dangerously drift...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many neuroscientists believe disorders of the mind will be solved when we understand the differences between the male and female brain. Yet is is frequently argued that men and women are not born but made. Are mental differences between the sexes real? Or is this just sexism dressed up as science? Cambridge p...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Evil artificial intelligences are luckily confined to fiction. Yet leading scientists claim that intelligent machines are 'the most serious threat facing mankind'. Are they right or could a mind free from human prejudices create a better world? Or is all talk of artificial intelligence a deluded fantasy? Phys...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes As Romeo and Juliet showed, love is a wild and unpredictable force even when faced with reason and control. But we join online dating sites to increase our probability of finding it. Are emotions and intimacy rational choices that can be measured and explained, or is this the sort of reductionist thinking tha...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Nearly twenty years have passed since scientists first proposed a mysterious force, Dark Energy, pushing our universe apart. Yet there is no direct evidence for it or any idea what it might be. Might our theories of the universe be profoundly mistaken or is an explanation of Dark Energy around the corner? M-T...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes While the world turns we think ideas, right or wrong, are eternal. Yet meaning changes over time and context. Should we conclude that, like the material world, ideas are transient and knowledge and morality passing stories? Or is the eternal in our grasp after all? New York Times columnist and author of The T...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes At a time of uncertainty and doubt, we often suppose that science alone can uncover the truth. Yet a recent paper found that 90% of scientific studies are not reproducible. Should we see science as a flawed method and look elsewhere for our truths, or is it the only direct line to reality we’ve got? Outspoken...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Western values have been extraordinarily successful. Yet now we seem on the back foot, unsure of ourselves and sometimes embarrassed at our own past. Beset with postmodern doubts, do we need to revive belief in the values and importance of our ideals? Or is the age of the West at an end? Eminent Indian activi...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think empathising with others is the route to a better world. But studies show that empathy encourages us to help one named child over ten anonymous others. Is morality perhaps not about empathy at all? Does the moral way to act have more to do with thinking than feeling, or is empathy a vital force for go...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes 'God does not play dice with the universe' Einstein famously argued. Yet contemporary physics embeds just such dice playing at the core of its account. Is the universe really unknowable even to itself? Or as Einstein implied is this misguided and its secrets remain to be uncovered? Oxford Constructor theorist...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Our life is made up of experiences. But what experience is remains a mystery. Heidegger thought it inexplicable and neuroscientists cannot find its location. Do we just need a better theory to uncover its secrets? Or is experience somehow both all that we have and yet not part of this world? Formulator of the...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Few take anarchism and the abandonment of organised government as a viable political goal. Yet in economics, capitalism is just such a leaderless anarchic system. Might a radically decentralised political system be more credible than we think? Or is centralised government necessary in politics...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We believe democracy leads to a fairer world. Yet almost all governments claim to be democratic including China, Russia and Syria. And 50 years after the abolition of hanging, UK polls still show a majority in favour. Is democracy illusory and troublingly incoherent? Or is an ideal democracy yet to be fully r...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From Newton's laws to E=mc2, we think we have uncovered the secrets of the universe. But some claim these laws evolve and others point to their human and cultural origins. Might eternal natural laws be human hubris? Or is the mind of God in our grasp? CERN physicist and coiner of the term "Theory of Everythin...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes As China and Russia adopt their own variants, the reign of capitalism seems absolute. Yet there are many who wish for an alternative and some who claim a final crisis is in the making. Is there a radical alternative that we have not yet discovered? Or is the reality that capitalism is the only viable economic...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think space and time are the structure of the universe. Yet Einstein argued 'space and time are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live'. And philosophers, Kant and Heidegger, saw space and time as the framework of thought not the world. Are space and time just a human fantasy? Physicis...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The power of words is a wonder, and language perhaps our greatest skill. Yet the gap between the sound of a bell and its description is huge. Are the limits to language so profound that the big questions of science and philosophy are beyond us? Or can everything be said if we try hard enough? Director of the...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes There is no self, no 'I', only a flickering illusion. So claim many neuroscientists and philosophers. Yet for the rest of us, the denial of the self feels like a bitter pill to swallow. Is the self a fantasy? Or is it essential to our being and consciousness? Cambridge and NCH philosopher Simon Blackburn, neu...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From schizophrenia to depression we assume our psychiatric diagnoses are real. But as the mental health epidemic turns global, the categories now seem like the cause. Is it time to abandon our biological account of mental illness? Or is it the best strategy we've got? Polly Toynbee interrogates Cambridge psyc...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Neuroscience has enabled us to explain how the brain affects the body. Yet there is no theory to explain how the matter of the brain creates thought and experience. Is consciousness inexplicable because it is not part of the material world? Or is it somehow physical after all and within our grasp? German phil...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes A generation raised on Foucault and Derrida has learned to distrust claims to objective truth. Yet the mantra that 'there is no truth' is a paradox. Do we need a new conception of fantasy and reality to free us from the tyranny of truth makers and the paradoxes of postmodernists alike? American philosopher Jo...