Open offices are overrated
Adults PhilosophyIf you work in an office, there's a good chance it's an open one. How did we get here? And why is it so bad?
What's the definition of comedy? Banana. - Addison Anderson
Adults PhilosophyWhat makes us giggle and guffaw? The inability to define comedy is its very appeal; it is defined by its defiance of definition. Addison Anderson riffs on the philosophy of Henri Bergson and Aristotle to elucidate how a definition draws borders while comedy breaks them down.
Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani
Adults PhilosophyOur bodies - the physical, biological parts of us - and our minds - the thinking, conscious aspects - have a complicated, tangled relationship. Which one primarily defines you or your self? Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? Maryam Alimardani investigates.
Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument
Adults PhilosophyWhat if we are not creators, but creations?
What Happens If We Bring the Sun to Earth?
Adults PhilosophyWhat happens if we bring the sun to earth? No, seriously.
How To Be A Genius
Adults Philosophy"We hear a lot about genius. We are taught to admire the minds of those infinite, baffling but astonishing geniuses like Einstein, Tolstoy or Picasso. Quite what genius might actually be is left a little vague. It's a codeword for 'brilliant but perhaps too other-worldly ever really to fathom.' We are invited to stand in awe at the achievements of geniuses but also to feel that their thought processes might be quasi-magical and that it is ultimately simply mysterious how they were ever able to come up with the ideas they have had..."
Why Socrates Hated Democracy
Adults PhilosophyWe're used to thinking hugely well of democracy. But interestingly, one of the wisest people who ever lived, Socrates, had deep suspicions of it.
How to use rhetoric to get what you want - Camille A. Langston
Adults PhilosophyHow do you get what you want, using just your words? Aristotle set out to answer exactly that question over two thousand years ago with a treatise on rhetoric. Camille A. Langston describes the fundamentals of deliberative rhetoric and shares some tips for appealing to an audience's ethos, logos, and pathos in your next speech.
LITERATURE - Voltaire
Adults PhilosophyVoltaire was one of the wisest, funniest and cleverest people of the 18th century. He continues to have lots to teach us about toleration, modesty and kindness.
Who am I? A philosophical inquiry - Amy Adkins
Adults PhilosophyThroughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it's probably fitting that to demonstrate the complexity, the Greek historian Plutarch used the story of a ship. Amy Adkins illuminates Plutarch's Ship of Theseus.
The philosophy of Stoicism - Massimo Pigliucci
Adults PhilosophyWhat is the best life we can live? How can we cope with whatever the universe throws at us and keep thriving nonetheless? The ancient Greco-Roman philosophy of Stoicism explains that while we may not always have control over the events affecting us, we can have control over how we approach things. Massimo Pigliucci describes the philosophy of Stoicism.
What if the Earth were Hollow?
Adults PhilosophyWhat if there were a tunnel through the middle of the earth and you jumped in?
POLITICAL THEORY - Karl Marx
Adults PhilosophyKarl Marx remains deeply important today not as the man who told us what to replace capitalism with, but as someone who brilliantly pointed out certain of its problems. The School of Life, a pro-Capitalist institution, takes a look.
PHILOSOPHY - Nietzsche
Adults PhilosophyNietzsche believed that the central task of philosophy was to teach us to 'become who we are'. Find out more by reading our book 'Life Lessons from Nietzsche '
Are You Alone? (In The Universe)
Adults PhilosophyAre you alone? To answer this question we have to take a look what "you" are first. What are you made of and where you stand in this universe. Are you your body? Your atoms? And how are your parts connected to the big picture?
This Giant Neuron Could Explain Where Consciousness Comes From
Adults PhilosophyAfter uncovering three giant neurons, scientists could be one step closer to pinpointing where consciousness lives in the brain.
Why Earth Is A Prison and How To Escape It
Adults PhilosophyWe are trapped on earth. Controlled by an ancient debt to the universe...
Would you sacrifice one person to save five?
Adults PhilosophyImagine you're watching a runaway trolley barreling down the tracks, straight towards five workers. You happen to be standing next to a switch that will divert the trolley onto a second track.
Post-Truth: Why Facts Don't Matter Anymore
Adults PhilosophyWhy we can't seem to agree on what's true when it's easier than ever to check.