Aeon

Did the 3rd US President really believe that his educational institution would reform the South?

How chairwork therapy can be a liberating force for patients.

Will truth set us free?

But can enlightenment still be found on the banks of the Ganges?

We’re not the only species to wrestle with the concept of morality.

An idea always in motion, and in crisis.

How debates over nutrition test out faith in science.

Economist Marc Levinson: Ideas will replace raw materials.

Why mutualism is an inclusive vision of antifascism.

Psydiversity: beyond identity politics and traditional institutions.

How US high school culture brought teen values to the world.

Why do we feed so much on end-of-times energies?

Women are claiming their space in philosophy.

Five reasons why moral philosophy is distracting and harmful.

Allokataplixis: "the gift travellers offer to places they visit."

What do we know about social attachment and human nature?

Why disagreement is vital to advancing human understanding.

English spelling can be very fickle - here is why.

Is the act of writing erotica degrading or empowering?

How a capacity to suffer can unite us all.

How an innovative treatment heals and empowers.

Why has dark matter never been found?

A reflection on the complexities of female pain.

Why one of the most cited scientific papers is a false and dangerous myth.

Why the path to peace may be using trauma differently.

Why our knowledge crisis is essentially ethical, and so are its solutions.

Why the philosophical era most likely did not exist.

The importance of discussing death with children.

Who was allowed to call the Roman Empire home?

How our most abstract concepts emerged as solutions to our needs.

Empires, pandemics and the economic future of the West.

Could all mental disorders be the product of a single underlying dimension?

Here are responsible shareholder tactics that actually work.

In the fight for gender justice, criminal law should be a last resort.

How to free yourself from the tentacles of pain.

Aliens, science and speculation in the wake of 'Oumuamua.

How to get kids to take on philosophical thought.

Globalism is out. Nationalism is in.

Friends are at life’s heart, core to our very being.

Why our attitudes towards mass violence need to change.

We have evolved powerful mechanisms for healing.

Why Leo Strauss considers it dangerous.

Self-discovery: from Jesus to mindfulness and beyond.

Could lucid dreaming solve reoccurring nightmares?

Humans are not only made of words.

Does seeing paedophiles as monsters makes it harder to stop abuse?

How psychology guides our belief.

The forgotten people's ambassadress.

The universe is still a mystery.

The key to acceptance.

Should we pull the plug on electroconvulsive therapy?

Why becoming a hermit is the ultimate feminist statement.

Solitary confinement is a killer for orcas.

Why did so much variety arise when a simple tube would do?

Can someone's brilliance ever outweigh their personal wrongdoings?

Challenging a renowned Harvard professor's take on human morality.

A fascinating account of how Gray's philosophy helped a soldier understand his war experience.

How new-found wealth could have gotten you burnt at the stake centuries ago.

Morality is a multi-shaped force driving life decisions. But, where does individual perspective fit in?

A first-aid manual for clear thinking.

How the pragmatic curiosity of Japan was mistaken as Westernisation.

None of our technologies has managed to destroy humanity yet.

Have we lost touch with our own dreams?

Prominent scientific minds have a lot to gain from engaging with the public.

What are the dangers of seeing human minds as predictive machines?

Why failing to consider half the population will lead to unbalanced theories and miss key perspectives.

Gaslighting was a by-product of popular culture.

He was a historian and champion of working people. Here, we study the events that made him.

What can we learn from the pandemic that never was?

Why believing in hard data as the only path to scientific truth may be pure fiction.

"It’s like your computer. Everything works as it should, as long as the mechanism is not damaged."

Women's pain, it seems, is hysterical until proven otherwise.

Why modern culture blames parents for forces beyond their control.

What do we miss when we ignore, from a bodily perspective, what's going on around us?

A personal piece on why understanding disability is not as clear-cut as society makes us think.

What the 1970s teach us about survival in an ecologically blighted world.

What complexity science says about what makes a winning team.

If we are alone in the universe, should we do anything about it?

In times of crisis, the arts are weapons for the soul.

Discover more about the sailor with a nation in his calloused hands.

How raising children can change a father's brain.

A study on liberty, security and our system of racial capitalism.

Were the beloved children's books a social antidote to fascism?

Renowned science writer Philip Ball breaks down the biological research giving meaning to our lives.

Viruses are not just threats — they are also actors in evolution's long story.

Touch is a language we cannot afford to forget.

Studying the challenges of reclaiming the commons from capitalism.

Hannah Arendt enjoyed her solitude, but she believed it could make people susceptible to totalitarianism.

How did creativity become an engine of economic growth and an institutional imperative?

An atheist's apology for Christianity.

For Arthur Schopenhauer, happiness is a state of semi-satisfaction.

Besides being a clothing accessory, they also act as a symbolic foundation for human identity.

For philosopher Henri Bergson, laughter is what keeps us elastic and free.

Have its unproven strategies seized pop psychology?

Something is killing the world’s oldest institution.

To really find an answer, we need to first understand how and why is the question being asked.

The courage of trans people is very well established.

If science fails to be experimentally progressive, does it become degenerative?

How dance evoked a touchstone for life-affirming values.

"We deserve treatments and models that put our humanity front and centre."

Could a fake guru work just as well as a real one?

Why do we believe that we become more human through technology?

What can poker say about the dating game?

Can we find meaning in the mundane realities of working life?

On orgasms and tantric sex: the potential road to healthy sexual bliss.

Sunlight does great things for us, how can we make sure we don't lose the connection?

We keep chasing happiness, but true clarity comes from depression.

A personal reflection on understanding the self.

"Questions of belief versus evidence are not the exclusive domain of scientific and historical research".

What life lessons can you gain from playing chess?

Your favourites: our environments can have a profound impact on our personality traits.

The history of the human imagination predates linguistic expression.

Why science needs to catch-up with what dog trainers already know.

The profound power of the flow state.

Laughter is important in the darkest of times.

Accusing others of virtue signalling might itself constitute virtue signalling.

What is it like to feel love and share physical intimacy but no sexual attraction to the person you are with?

By viewing the self as ever-evolving, then who we are cannot be lost - even in the face of dementia.

By realising our own mortality do we get to see ourselves for what we really are?

What do female friendships say about the role of relationships in identity?

Reflecting on what draws your interest and why is better than focusing on what doesn't.

What are you defined by? Your job and values? Or your mental health diagnosis?

Does shame allow us to develop our morality?

"Where are the delineations between consent and exploitation, sex and duty?"

It's a promising intervention for epilepsy and Alzheimer's, but at what cost?

Histories forgotten women: the little deaf woman who became a victorian pop economist.

A fascinating tale of business, debauchery and wealth.

Despite often transformative advice, they have fallen out of favour.

In 1930s Japan a band of Buddhist assailants assassinated 20 political and financial leaders.

Our brains predict the outcomes of our actions, shaping reality into what we expect.

"Wanting things is highly contagious... Can you be immunised against the infection?"

How Disney took to subverting its own romantic ideals

Ed Simon introduces us to Erasmus Darwin, whose poetry may have brought his grandson, Charles Darwin, to his groundbreaking theory of evolution.

Cultivating a more modest, more human integrity.

For most of history, Europeans have had a very different relationship with the peoples of Africa and Asia than simple domination. Chris Nierstrasz, writing in Aeon magazine, challenges the commonly held belief that the European colonial empires were a sign of sheer European superiority.

Does it go beyond true belief?

Research puts us on the cusp of brain-to-brain communication.

Elizabeth Svoboda, was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder by her therapist. In this essay she reflects on obsession as although OCD is disabling, obsessive traits seem to be having a cultural moment – and might even have helped ensure human survival.

Why her work matters so much, even now.

Henri Bergson's philosophy of creativity, change and freedom resonated powerfully with women. But as Emily Herring, writing in Aeon Magazine, unfolds, this led to a huge backlash against him as it seems the presence of women in a traditionally masculine space became a source of ridicule and outrage.

In this piece by Elitsa Dermendzhiyska published in Aeon Magazine, she examines research on how social status, health, identity and social exclusion can lead to feelings of rejection - which in turn can be fatal for humans.

Heath Ledger was unquestionably received as a great actor - but his untimely death came under intense scrutiny. Here, Aeon look into some of the cognitive research into just why character immersion could compromise mental health.

Over the past 150 years, dogs have been ‘bred’ into the varieties we recognise today due to specificies made in Victorian Britain. Michael Worboys, writing in Aeon Magazine, tells the very interesting tale as to why the Victorians chose to transform their canines.

Eve Browning for Aeon magazine, writes about how the writings of brilliant leader, kind horseman and friend of Socrates, Xenophon inspires a humane and practical approach to life.

The spectre of a Nazi Britain, successfully

“Simone Weil said the correct application of attention can lead us to ‘the gateway to eternity ... The infinite in an instant’ - in the smartphone era perhaps the problem isn’t the lack of attention, but rather where it is directed.

Is his sexuality relevant?

Carbon taxes have been introduced in many places, but have met with widespread

Carl Hendrick, writing in Aeon Magazine looks at a generation of schoolchildren

Crabs and lobsters have a tough time at the hands of humans” writes Jonathan Birch, in Aeon. Excluded from the scope of animal welfare, should we do when there is uncertainty about the link between human actions and a seriously bad outcome?

Tipping - it’s rude in Tokyo, rude not to in New York - tipping mystifies tourists, economists

When a parent dies by suicide, how the children are told casts an intractable dye on a child’s understanding of life and loss. Research psychologist Jesse Bering writing in Aeon Magazine, offers insight into the often stigmatised topic of parental suicide.

Amy Olberding, presidential professor of philosophy at the University of Oklahoma looks at the effects of pop-culture-induced orientalism when people are faced with the reality of Eastern ideas.

Laughter is a paradox. We all know it's good for us, yet we must somehow cut other powerful emotions.

Thomas Maloney, writing in Aeon Magazine, discourages the idea of leaving your day job to follow your dream, and suggests a better path to fulfillment is to join the bifurcators who juggle work-for-pay and their work-for-love.

A lot of the public dialogue about sex revolves around consent. But Rebecca Kukla writing in Aeon Magazine, shows us how good sex is more than just obvious consent and refusal. Communication, including having a safe-word system in play, allows for experimentation and collaboration.

Anthropologist and animal behaviourist Lynne A Isbell, writing in Aeon Magazine, explains how the fear of snakes meant the evolution of better vision.

How can we logically manage to deceive ourselves?

Anna Machin, writing in Aeon Magazine, suggests that among our close animal relatives, only humans have involved (and empathic) fathers and investigates why evolution favoured the devoted dad.

Iñigo Hernandez- Arenaz and Nagore Iriberri, writing in Aeon Magazine, investigate why women negotiating their own salaries will ask for lower compensation from a man than from a woman.

Rachel Plotnick, writing in Aeon Magazine, chronicles the history of pushbuttons and suggests that their rise in popularity has provoked a century of worries about losing the human touch.

M M Owen, writing in Aeon Magazine, explores the genius of psychologist Erik Erikson and his belief that self-invention takes a lifetime.

John Rapley, writing in Aeon Magazine, reflects on how the development sector summoned the magic of capitalism from the ashes of communism.

Jacob Burak, writing in Aeon Magazine, asserts that although the fear of missing out haunts our social networks and our real lives alike, there is a way to break free.

Christian Jarrett, writing in Aeon Magazine, provides helpful psychological advice to those who are struggling to find their true calling in life.

Andrew Murphy, writing in Aeon Magazine, chronicles the dramatic and complex life of William Penn.

Where does your conscious self reside? Lauri Nummenmaa, writing in Aeon magazine, argues that it is not all in your head. Sometimes, it’s in your legs.

Lane Greene, writing in Aeon Magazine, argues that language might be the ultimate self-regulating system, with nobody in charge.

Keith Frankish, writing in Aeon magazine, argues that death is no leveller if some live much longer than others.

Paul Sagar, writing in Aeon magazine, pays tribute to the work of political scientist, economist, and author Francis Fukuyama, which was once much maligned but now hailed as prophetic.

Christian Jarrett, writing in Aeon magazine, shares 10 dispiriting findings that reveal the darker and less impressive aspects of human nature.

Richard G ‘Bugs’ Stevens, writing in Aeon magazine, explains how the marvel of electric light became a global blight to health.

Will colonies in Mars need the law?

Is a home made of bricks and mortar or hopes and dreams? Johannes Lenhard, writing in Aeon magazine, shares dispatches from among the rough sleepers on the streets of Paris.

In 2115, when our descendants look back at our society, what will they condemn as our greatest moral failing? Stephen Cave and Stefan Klein, writing in Aeon magazine, consider our once and future sins.

The chasm between producers and consumers leaves many of us estranged from beauty and a vital part of an ethical life. Glenn Adamson, writing in Aeon magazine, considers the ethics of the material world.

Our curiosity about Mars has always been tinged with fantasy – but wishful thinking needn’t be mistaken. Michael Hanlon, writing in Aeon magazine, considers whether there is life on the Red Planet.

A century ago parents thought a little fear helped children grow up. Frank Furedi, writing in Aeon magazine, explores why today it’s parents who are constantly afraid.

Jim Baggott, writing in Aeon magazine, explains what Einstein meant by ‘God does not play dice’.

When we pit ourselves against machines, the game can only end in tears. John Cornwell, writing in Aeon magazine, considers a scenario in which we do not fear the machines of our own making.

Francisco Mejia Uribe, writing in Aeon magazine, argues that believing without evidence is always morally wrong.

Is the term 'intellectual property' completely outdated?

Henry Martyn Lloyd, writing in Aeon magazine, explains why the Enlightenment was not the age of reason.

The problem with love.

How to unleash creativity, intuition, and political transformation.

Happiness is not the same as a sense of meaning.