The Enlightenment gave rise to a habit of worshipping ‘great men’, but they never had to worry about dying in childbirth
Unthinkable: Donald Trump is on a crusade to unwind the ‘woke’ agenda, but that does not mean the question of inclusivity is solved
A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing. Be more like a hedgehog
Unthinkable: Three steps for decluttering your mind
JD Vance is right about this: Liberals and conservatives do not love the same way
Unthinkable: Ireland should talk more about Jesus – and I say that as an atheist
No one is asking Meta to act as God - just not to pollute the public space with lies
Unthinkable: Meta’s stance on fact-checking resembles a philosophical position known as ‘epistemological anarchy’
Squid Game or Sweden? The choice Ireland faces as Donald Trump takes office
Unthinkable: Irish economic policy was once framed as ‘Boston or Berlin’ – our options today are much starker
When it comes to clutter are you more like Michael D Higgins or minimalist Marie Kondo?
Unthinkable: Preserving only that which is joyful is philosophically problematic
Smartphones are an easy scapegoat for a more profound unhappiness
Children are led to believe ‘that their worth is tied to proving that they are exceptional’
Lessons in philosophy from Sally Rooney’s latest novel that can help us make sense of the world
Unthinkable: The ideas of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein on language and reality surface in Intermezzo, and the relationship between the two philosophers mirrors that of Rooney’s two principal characters, brothers Peter and Ivan
‘On the ninth day of Christmas, Nietzsche said with glee: sever links with your family’
Unthinkable: For the seasan that’s in it, we’ve gone for a philosophical Christmas carol
Find your ‘inner mystic’: Is this the answer to modern melancholy?
Unthinkable: English philosopher and author Simon Critchley suggests we can learn to enjoy ‘idiot glee’ from medieval Christianity
This column is not for cynics: In praise of political innocence
Unthinkable: Was the general election a victory for ‘grown ups’ or a defeat for idealism?
‘It’s cool’ isn’t a good reason for scientists to develop harmful technologies
Unthinkable: Regulating generative AI is important in its own right, but it’s also a dummy run for the existential threat of artificial general intelligence. This will go beyond mimicking human intelligence to conquering it
Mary Lou’s eyeroll and the ‘Simon stare’: The body language in TV leaders’ debate
A behavioural psychologist analyses what was said without words in Tuesday night’s showdown
A philosophical guide to voting: Three big issues to think about
Unthinkable: In the case of voting, the critical question is not the “mom litmus test” but the “child, or future citizen, litmus test”
We are united by common urges: Freedom. Justice. The need to go to the toilet
Unthinkable: Looking for the meaning of life? You may be sitting on the answer