News
Institutions incentivise silence and the powerful benefit
1+ day, 12+ hour ago (404+ words) What does it mean to know something, documented, confirmed, and beyond reasonable dispute, and then do nothing with that knowledge? Not out of ignorance. Not for lack of access. But by choice. By institutional instinct. By the quiet, collective decision…...
Peace in space is a fiction we can't afford
4+ day, 22+ hour ago (1710+ words) Following Artemis II, space as humanity's shared frontier is once again in the spotlight. And most nations purport to agree, space should be reserved for peace. In the build-up to How The Light Gets In's debate this May, One Giant…...
Even if truth is an illusion, we must keep pursuing it
1+ week, 2+ day ago (211+ words) Imagine you are standing at the shoreline of a vast ocean. You can see as far as the horizon, but you know that the horizon is not the edge of the world. It is merely the edge of what your…...
In the age of tragedy, everyone's a sadomasochist
1+ week, 4+ day ago (188+ words) The idea of pleasures that are not somehow painful," writes Adam Phillips, has become literally inconceivable, so wedded are we to our perpetual dismay." Might pure pleasure, free of pain, be a mere idea'one that could become inconceivable"? On the…...
There is no such thing as a country
2+ week, 2+ day ago (151+ words) The conversation circles until we land somewhere that many find unsatisfactory: no one knows how to count the number of countries because no one knows what counts as a country. It isn't a math question'it's a window into the politics…...
What is it like to be a human being?
3+ week, 1+ day ago (442+ words) Thomas Nagel famously asked, "What is it like to be a bat?" But has anyone ever provided an answer to the question, "What is it like to be a human being?" You might think the answer is so obvious that…...
Our economic system is designed to make us unhappy
3+ week, 2+ day ago (440+ words) These cookies are necessary to the core functionality of our website and some of its features, such as access to secure areas. These cookies collect information that can help us understand how our websites are being used. This information can…...
A world without certainty needs its own grand narratives
3+ week, 2+ day ago (1662+ words) From Western-centric visions of the liberal world order to the Enlightenment story of history as Reason's onward march, we rightly distrust grand narratives. But, argues Turkish international-relations theorist Ay'e Zarakol, without them we struggle to make sense of the world....
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3+ week, 3+ day ago (13+ words) A new form of life has just been designed in a lab'IAI TV...
Gossip is a moral good
1+ mon, 5+ hour ago (1679+ words) From Louis XVI's monitored coffeehouses to the whisper networks of #Me Too, gossip is often dismissed as trivial or malicious. But philosopher Karen Adkins argues that gossip functions as a vital moral tool that enables those with less power to…...