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Sam Dresser

Senior Editor, Aeon+Psyche

Sam has been with Aeon since its launch in 2012. He’s most interested in how to do philosophy and in the continental/analytic divide. History and politics are also amusing to him. He considers Evelyn Waugh to be a very funny writer and enjoys pubs more than he should.

See Sam Dresser’s profile on Aeon

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Written by Sam Dresser

Young woman dances near a young man on a skateboard by a vintage car beside the ocean on a clear day.

Virtues and vices

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How to think about pleasure

Weirdly hard to define, much less to feel OK about it, pleasure is a tricky creature. Can philosophy help us lighten up?

by Sam Dresser

Death and dying

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How to not fear your death

You exist, but one day you won’t. An Epicurean perspective can help you feel less afraid, and even grateful for life’s finitude

by Sam Dresser

Edited by Sam Dresser

Music

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Courtly love songs are a window into medieval sex lives

Song lyrics acted as a sexual script for aristocrats, revealing some edgy practices that ignited their imaginations

by Elizabeth Eva Leach

Man in jeans and trainers falls backwards as he avoids three charging bulls on a cobblestone street. Top-down perspective captures the chaos of the scene.

History of emotions

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Schadenfreude: why do we find joy in the pain felt by others?

A brief history of schadenfreude – taking pleasure in the misfortune of another – from ancient China to Charlie Chaplin

by David P Barash

A vintage photo of six women wearing wide-brimmed hats, smiling and laughing together. One woman is holding a steering wheel, suggesting they might be on a fun outdoor adventure. The background shows a natural, slightly blurry setting.

Film

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Why was a laughing woman seen as lethal, not least to herself?

When early cinema weaponised the sight of women’s laughter, it borrowed from flawed psychiatric ideas about female hysteria

by Maggie Hennefeld

A black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and tie smiling while a woman in a glittery dress and gloves laughs beside him. They are at a social gathering.

Sex and sexuality

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Everything I know about flirting, I learned from the Cold War

The rewards of flirtation go beyond sex or romance. But, as in other exchanges, you have to know where the red line is

by Youngbin Yoon

A monochrome photograph from above of a man looking out to sea. His hands are in his pockets and a dog waits some metres away

Thinking and intelligence

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Philosophical reflection often begins with a disruptive mood

For many of our greatest philosophers, it was their moods, from wonder to estrangement to anxiety, that first inspired them

by Steven Segal

A marble figurine seated in a chair plays a harp

Music

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Ancient Greek ideas of attunement can breathe new life into music

In Athenian philosophy, attunement is important not only in music, but also for moods, attitudes and states of mind

by John Bagby

Black-and-white photo of two people in a small rowboat on a calm, open water body under a cloudy sky. The boat and its occupants are reflected clearly in the still water.

The nature of reality

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How to think about time

This philosopher’s introduction to the nature of time could radically alter how you see your past and imagine your future

by Graeme A Forbes

Black and white photo of a boy walking across a littered street, with signs saying ‘No Hang Out Here’ and ‘Keep Away!’. Behind him, a man lies on the ground under a fire escape.

Transcendent experience

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Our days are both rough and slippery. Hope brings traction

I want to defend and buoy hope – it’s a fragile, quirky thing, but it has the power to help us act in the face of finitude

by John Lysaker

A young girl, seen from the back, in a museum in China stands before a huge, oval multicoloured image of ‘fossil’ microwave radiation

Virtues and vices

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The medieval notion that shows why even experts should be humble

Nicholas of Cusa and others saw the importance of ‘learned ignorance’ or recognising there is always something more to learn

by Christopher M Bellitto

A close up of a vibrant yellow-gold tulip flower

History of ideas

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I smell, therefore I am. On the philosophy of the olfactory

To truly grip us, philosophy must engage with the practical and animalistic. It’s time to stop turning its nose up at smell

by Simon Hajdini

A woman seen from behind and bathed in dawn light is looking out through a window to a forest

Altered states

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The small pleasures in life can produce moments of rapture

Rapture is a delight that turns us both towards the object of attention and towards oneself, resulting in a sense of freedom

by Christopher Hamilton

Ancient stone statue with three interconnected faces sharing one head, displaying neutral expressions, on a plain background.

Knowledge and reason

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Ancient Greek antilogic is the craft of suspending judgment

Sophists like Protagoras used the rhetoric of antilogic to escape from the illusion of truth and make room for uncertainty

by Robin Reames