Permissivism and Irrelevant Influences | Miriam Schoenfield
What does it mean for rationality to be ‘permissive’? Is rationality more limited than we would like to admit? Does the idea that ‘truth is...
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Philosophy for our times
The Institute of Art and Ideas is committed to placing philosophy and big ideas at the heart of public life -- building philosophy for our times. Described by Total Politics as "Europe's ans...
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Rehumanising science | Carlo Rovelli - Part 2
What makes humans different from nature? What do Confucianism and Daoism have to do with physics? Is science too realist? In part 2 of our i...
Rehumanising science | Carlo Rovelli - Part 1
Are electrons real? What is the connection between physics and Buddhism? Is now the time to rehumanise science? Eastern philosophies have be...
Taking down the cultural elite | Catherine Liu
What is managerialism? Why is the meritocracy sliding into technocracy? Does suffering make us seem more pure? We tend to think that today’s...
The chains of freedom | Daniel Markovits, Elizabeth Anderson, Yaron Brook
Is freedom always an absolute good? For freedom to be beneficial and practical, does it need constraining? Are attacks on freedom really the...
The secret history of cool | Joel Dinerstein
Who was the first person to be cool? What connects the civil rights movement and Albert Camus' 'The Rebel'? How has the coopting of black te...
Rebalancing the global order | Kishore Mahbubani
Is it truly the beginning of the end of Western dominance? Where did it all go wrong? And is this more than just an upheaval of the status q...
The future of the right | Sohrab Ahmari, Gawain Towler, Rachel Maclean, Mark Littlewood
Is the populist right opposed to liberalism and the free market? Does this mark a change in what it is to be right-wing, or was it a mistake...
Love is more than magic | Alain de Botton
What do voyeurs want? What can the Greeks teach us about love? Why do we pursue those who we now are going to hurt us? Despite our longing f...
In the name of reason | Steve Fuller, Miriam Schoenfield, Dan Sperber
Is the future one where we accept tribalism and conflict as inherent in the human condition, where moral and scientific beliefs based on rea...
The mind is not a machine | Iain McGilchrist
For most scientists, the mind is little more than a machine. With the rise of AI, some now claim that computers may themselves become consci...
Anxiety and the soul's itch | Sarah Wilson
Is anxiety something to be embraced, rather than fixed? Why are more and more of us feeling the 'soul's itch'? How we can start living more...
Truth, beauty and other misconceptions | Lisa Randall
Is beauty a reliable indicator of scientific truth? Or is it merely a distraction? Some of the best scientists throughout history have equat...
The world after liberalism | Maurice Glasman & Sohrab Amari
Is this the end of liberalism, or just another temporary crisis? If it is the end, what will follow it? And where did it all go wrong? Since...
Why artists shouldn't fear AI | Jaron Lanier
What does originality mean in the age of AI? Why should artists resist the temptation to fear AI? What role will human creativity play in th...
Copying consciousness: the future of mind uploading | Anders Sandberg
What makes you 'you'? If scientists made a digital replica of your mind, would this new 'you' be conscious? And what does this all mean for...
The return of idealism | James Tartaglia
Is materialism mistaken in its understanding of consciousness? How can dividing experience into the phenomenal and the transcendent provide...
Reimagining the right | Richard Tice
Is this the end of Britain's two-party system? How has Reform brought together seemingly contradictory left- and right-wing ideas? Why do th...
Is philosophy becoming irrelevant? | Mary Midgley
Does philosophy still matter in today's world? If so, why are students less and less interested in studying in it? In a special episode from...
Who's afraid of gender? | Judith Butler
Why has gender identity become such a controversial talking point in modern politics? Judith Butler, pioneering gender theorist whose change...