Author: José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology, University of Exeter From the air, you see it only through the constant jolt, tilt and shudder of the low-flying Cessna aircraft. The landscape of the Llanos de Moxos, northern Bolivia, appears as a disconnected patchwork of open grassland savannahs, forest islands and lakes. It feels random, almost unreadable […]
In our previous entry, I explicated two different concepts that in many languages are subsumed under a single term ‘life’, or equivalent, but that in ancient Greek were separated as two truly distinct things: zoé , or life in the biological sense, and bíos , or life in the biographical sense. I argued that these […]
One of the principal values of philosophical thought has traditionally been the promotion of conceptual clarity: helping us to understand as well as possible what it is we are thinking when we think what we think. In the debate over the moral aspects of the limits of life, it is therefore important to reflect on […]
Two years ago, in March 2024, I wrote in this blog about a decision that surprised many: the rejection of the Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch. After fifteen years of work by an international team of experts, the proposal to declare that we are now living in a new chapter of Earth’s history—one defined […]
If you’ve been following along with our philosophical journey, you’ll remember that we ended the last article with a pretty useful idea: the concept of “inferential prostheses.” These are tools that extend our ability to draw consequences from information, to figure things out, to know what to do. Language was the first and most fundamental […]
You probably have a member of your family that you’re not related to by blood—a step-parent, an adopted cousin, your mom’s best friend who you grew up calling your aunt. They’re indisputably part of your family, but a DNA test wouldn’t hint at your relationship. Archaeologists are finding that this holds true for families from […]
What makes human beings unique among animals? This ancient question has received countless answers—some modern ones we saw them in our last post—but I want to suggest that one of the most compelling and least appreciated responses comes from understanding humans as the creatures who create and inhabit what might be called inferential prostheses. These […]
Authors: Cordelia Fine, Professor, History & Philosophy of Science program, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne; Kate Lynch, Lecturer in Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney, and Morgan Anna Weaving, Research Affiliate, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University What causes workplace sexual harassment? How can we continue to better understand […]
Author: Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham What can you see right now? This might seem like a silly question, but what enters your consciousness is not the whole story when it comes to vision. A great deal of visual processing in the brain goes on well below our conscious awareness […]
One century ago, when philosophers talked about technology, they’re not usually discussing the latest app or whether artificial intelligence will take our jobs. They were asking bigger questions: What does technology do to us as human beings? How does it change the way we see the world? And perhaps most importantly, is it helping us […]