Philosophy For Our Times

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Love is more than magic | Alain de Botton

August 04, 2026

What do voyeurs want? What can the Greeks teach us about love? Why do we pursue those who we now are going to hurt us?Despite our longing for lasting connection, love often falters on the rocks of misunderstanding and unmet expectations. Philosopher and founder of The School of Life, Alain de Botton, explores how romantic ideals mislead us and why emotional maturity, not chemistry, holds the key to enduring intimacy. Drawing on philosophy and psychology, he examines how our childhood shapes d...

In the name of reason | Steve Fuller, Miriam Schoenfield, Dan Sperber

July 28, 2026

Is the future one where we accept tribalism and conflict as inherent in the human condition, where moral and scientific beliefs based on reason are badges, shaped by class, nation, ethnicity and culture? Or is reason more important than ever, not as a route to truth, but as a means to test the effectiveness and consequences of a given outlook? And can we reclaim reason as a method for resisting the crowd rather than following it?Reason was supposedly the great liberator – an Enlightenmen...

The mind is not a machine | Iain McGilchrist

July 21, 2026

For most scientists, the mind is little more than a machine. With the rise of AI, some now claim that computers may themselves become conscious. For acclaimed neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philosopher Iain McGilchrist, this is a profound mistake. The attempt to explain the mind in purely mechanistic terms reflects the flawed assumptions of materialism and reductionism – both symptoms of a civilisation dangerously dominated by left-hemisphere thinking. To understand mind and matter, he arg...