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Philosophy

A collection of 502 articles

Iain McGilchrist: Death is not the opposite of life. The opposite of life is “the machine”

In a recent interview, British psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher Iain Gilchrist explained the differences in the way that the left and right hemispheres of the brain process information. The right hemisphere is designed to be the maste

Don’t compete

For a society to survive and thrive, it needs to reward its agents when they do things that help in its preservation and growth.

The damage education does

What is the purpose of education? Is it to educate you so that you become a more thoughtful, more creative or wiser person? Is it to teach you how to think for yourself? No. It’s to prepare you for work and to train you to become obedient to what

The Intricate Connection of Birdsongs to Human Language

Introduction Birdsongs have inspired poets and lovers, becoming one of the philosophical focal points in ancient Greece and Rome.

The Wild Chatbot

“The first thing you need to know about this book … is that it asks you to suspend both belief and disbelief.” — Dorothy Coccinella Ladybugboss1 There are friends you can count on to surprise you. Like the time Vanessa called to ask if I would be the voice of Hospicing Modernity.

Escaping the Trap of ‘Realism’ and ‘Utopianism’: Towards Programmatic Synthesis

[T]he strongest and most efficient of megamachines can be overthrown[…] The collapse of the Pyramid Age proved that the megamachine exists on a basis of human beliefs, which may crumble, of human decisions, which may prove fallible, and human consent, which, when the magic becomes discredited, may be withheld.

UN Censors Criticism of Saudi Arabia at Internet Conference

(New York) – United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the official record of a UN-organized internet governance conference in Riyadh in December 2024, and retaliated against civil society organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The events at the 19th annual UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were the

Simplicity and Complexity

It seems to me that when people talk about voluntary simplicity, they are talking about refusing to engage with wasteful lifestyle patterns.

An Economics of Love

In early 2024, I offered an online 12-week course called “An Economics of Love” under the auspices of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate.

Are we too smart for our own good?

Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)—who, I’m told, was a very smart person—concluded, late in life, that high intelligence may be a lethal mutation. In this article, we’ll explore some reasons for this startling and paradoxical assessment. Intelligence is useful and entertaining. Companies go out of their

How Human Experience Makes Science Possible

This adapted excerpt is from The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson (2025, MIT Press). It is reproduced with permission from MIT Press. This adaptation was produced for the web by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media

The Conspiracy: A One World Government using technocracy to rule over all

We have all become familiar with the term “conspiracy theory” over the last five years. But what is less clear for some is what the “conspiracy” actually is. The “Conspiracy” refers to a movement among top intellectuals, industrialists, and globalists to create a single world government, which would threaten individual

Equality as a Process: Reimagining Power, Justice, and Social Structure

We are living under a system that carries with it sometimes crushing forms of coercion and oppression; very painful inequalities; hosts of useless sufferings.~Simone Weil[1] The question of equality has been of primary concern for thinkers and societies since ancient times. It remains as topical in our age

John Vervaeke: “The Meaning Crisis: Wisdom, Purpose, and the Search for Coherence”

(Conversation recorded on November 25th, 2024) Show Summary The crises that our world is facing seem to be constantly growing, leading to enormous and devastating systemic effects across the globe. Yet, the ripples of the human predicament are also reaching our personal lives in unexpected ways – through chronic loneliness, loss

Working from First Principles: ‘Parable of the Sower’ (Octavia E. Butler, 1993)

Jan 8, 2025 3 min read in Philosophy Literature