Human rights and justice
Fairness and equality
idea
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
Stories and literature
idea
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
Human rights and justice
idea
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
Gender
idea
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
Civic life
idea
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
Sex and sexuality
idea
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
Hallucinations and delusions
idea
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
Civic life
idea
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
Habits and routines
idea
Prison life puts the ‘time work’ we all do into sharp relief
Trapped in an ocean of time, prisoners exemplify the human impulse to take temporal experience into our own hands
by Michael G Flaherty
Social history
idea
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
History of emotions
idea
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
Bioethics
idea
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