The invention of God
David Baddiel’s new book argues that a deity that saves us from death is confected from human desire.
ByPhilosophy
Derek Parfit: the perfectionist at All Souls
Brilliant and eccentric, the Oxford philosopher spent his career grappling with fundamental moral questions.
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Who is afraid of Martin Heidegger?
Why the most radioactive philosopher of the 20th century still speaks to us.
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The aspirations of Agnes Callard
Her philosophy of marriage is an ethical dead end.
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I Want My Hat Back is a bleak masterpiece that explains the human condition
Jon Klassen’s picture book about a bear, a rabbit and a hat contains moments of profound revelation.
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Multi-Dimensional Man
Herbert Marcuse was the philosopher of the future in an age without one.
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Only philosophy can beat AI
No computer can be programmed to question its own moral code.
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At MoMa, I saw an artwork that moved me – made by a machine
Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised is a glorious introduction to art by artificial intelligence. Plus: the rise of cultural Russophobia.
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The poetic history of David Graeber
The posthumous publication of Pirate Enlightenment shows how the anarchist, like any true intellectual, never grew out of his childhood…
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Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness
Justin Gregg’s witty exploration of animal intelligence is a useful guide – but there is more to human life than…
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Elon Musk’s useful philosopher
Silicon Valley billionaires have taken up the ideas of William MacAskill, the leading voice of longtermism. But they will not…
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The rise of the “substackademic”
Public intellectuals of the kind embodied by Bruno Latour are disappearing.
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Bruno Latour and the philosophy of life
For the late French intellectual in an age of ecological crisis it was crucial to understand ourselves as rooted beings.
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Is America worth keeping?
Richard Rorty, the philosopher who predicted Trump, was scathing about the US’s failings but believed in the country’s capacity to…
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Nietzsche before the breakdown
In the 1880s, the ailing philosopher prophesied the West’s violent decline – but not even he could prevent it.
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Bertrand Russell, YouTube star
The stately philosopher’s online fame reveals Gen Z as a demographic desperate for certainty.
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How the New Statesman is helping universities understand our changing world
The New Statesman is partnering with leading universities to ensure faculty heads and students benefit from the title’s award-winning writing…
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Wittgenstein at war
The philosopher’s First World War notebooks reveal a soul in torment, but was fighting on the front line really the…
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The forgotten politics of personal sacrifice
For the first time in decades, Western politicians are asking people to forfeit for the greater good – and are…
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Why is it so difficult to face grim realities?
Taking painful truths to heart often requires imagining the unimaginable.
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