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Photo of a cobblestone street with colourful buildings and a red car. People are walking and talking on a sunny day.

Fairness and equality

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What is a minimally good life and are you prepared to live it?

Would you be willing to swap your life with that of the least fortunate person in your society? A philosophical test for justice

by Nicole Hassoun

Black and white photo of a person in a dark tunnel with light in the background, wearing a coat, looking at the camera.

Stories and literature

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The plague novel you need to read is by Bachmann, not Camus

In Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina, the plague isn’t a biological virus, it doesn’t cause lockdowns, but it is killing us

by Lyndsey Stonebridge

Medieval manuscript illustration of a person in stocks with two figures nearby, one in red with a basket.

Human rights and justice

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The history of humiliation points to the future of human dignity

Humiliation requires a complicit audience. To become truly ‘decent societies’, we need to educate people against joining in

by Ute Frevert

Photo of a group of people outdoors looking upwards, focused expressions, blurred background of buildings and trees.

Gender

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Talk of toxic masculinity puts the blame in all the wrong places

Toxic masculinity discourse harms vulnerable boys and men and distracts society from the true sources of gender inequity

by Heidi Matthews

A bathroom scene featuring a metal toilet roll dispenser with a partially unrolled toilet paper, mounted on a tiled wall.

Human rights and justice

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Public toilets are vanishing and that’s a civic catastrophe

New research shows it is a nightmare for all of us, but especially for people with health issues and marginalised groups

by Guido Corradi

Vintage sepia photograph of a man in a suit looking to the right with a pensive expression and slightly damaged background.

Civic life

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Ralph Waldo Emerson would really hate your Twitter feed

For Ralph Waldo Emerson, political activism was full of empty gestures done in bad faith. Abolition called for true heroism

by Peter Wirzbicki

Photo of five people on a wooden walkway in a waterside village smiling, one pair embracing, colourful laundry in background.

Sex and sexuality

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The new genomics of sexuality moves us beyond ‘born this way’

The new genomics of sexuality reflects a social and political reality that has moved beyond ‘born this way’ and the ‘gay gene’

by Joanna Wuest

Black and white photo of protesters holding a banner saying “DON’T CRY: RESIST!” on a city street in the rain.

Civic life

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The origin story of a slogan, ‘the personal is political’

What the radical-feminist origins of the slogan ‘the personal is political’ can tell us about language in our own divided age

by Guy Stevenson

A painting of a figure standing near a bed with a patterned red and cream wall in the background.

Hallucinations and delusions

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Philosophy can help us connect, even in the face of psychosis

How phenomenological tools can help foster a relationship of true listening between clinicians and people with psychosis

by Rosa Ritunnano & Kasim Qureshi

Black and white photo of people scrubbing a street while a large crowd of onlookers stands watching.

Social history

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The rise of the bystander as a complicit historical actor

‘The appalling silence of the good people’: how the bystander rose to prominence as a morally complicit actor in history

by Dennis Klein

Medieval drawing of five men wearing tunics, some carrying staffs, gesturing and talking under colourful manuscript text.

History of emotions

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The language of love in a 12th-century English law book

What a 12th-century English law book tells us about the social power of love and friendship in the Middle Ages – and today

by Meghan Woolley

Photo of a glass jar with a lid on a pedestal in a dimly lit setting, with blurred figures in the background.

Bioethics

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When does a human embryo have the moral status of a person?

Weighing up the science and the ethics of research on human embryos beyond its current 14-day restrictions

by David Cox