Category: Affairs

Dry conditions and impending drought mean millions of people endure hosepipe ban’s each year. There is a “temporary use ban” in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with Kent and Sussex to follow. It’s virtually impossible for water suppliers to enforce this ban themselves, so some are reportedly urging customers to report if they spot… Continue reading Hosepipe ban: should you snitch on your neighbour’s water use? A philosopher’s take

It’s now over two years since 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped while she walked home and killed by a police officer in London. Since then, we’ve also seen the case of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher also from London, was also killed by a stranger while walking to meet a friend. And in early… Continue reading Stopping violence against women starts with learning what misogyny really is

It has been more than 50 years since astronomers first proposed “dark matter”, which is thought to be the most common form of matter in the universe. Despite this, we have no idea what it is – nobody has directly seen it or produced it in the lab. So how can scientists be so sure… Continue reading Dark matter: should we be so sure it exists? Here’s how philosophy can help

In 1624, a physician called Jean-Baptiste van Helmont told a strange story in his book of “magnetic cures” about a man from Brussels who had lost his nose. Having had his nose cut off “in combat”, the man went to a famous Italian surgeon, Gaspare Tagliacozzi, who promised to make him a new one “resembling… Continue reading His new nose grew ‘frigid and cadaverous’: the philosophy of the first nose job

By any reckoning, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is one of the most influential Western philosophers in history. No account of the modern era – not just modern thought – could ignore him. Few courses in political or social theory would think to omit him. It is therefore worth coming to grips with his thought and its… Continue reading The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is profoundly contemporary

At a time when humans are threatening the extinction of so many other species, some people think that the extinction of our own species would be of benefit. Take, for example, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, whose founder believes that our extinction would put an end to the damage we inflict on each other and… Continue reading Solve suffering by blowing up the universe? The dubious philosophy of human extinction

In 1845, Karl Marx declared: “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it”. Change it he did. Political movements representing masses of new industrial workers, many inspired by his thought, reshaped the world in the 19th and 20th centuries through revolution and reform. His work influenced unions, labour… Continue reading Karl Marx’s philosophy explained