Irish people trust science – so why don’t we take climate change more seriously?Unthinkable: Examining ‘cognitive processes within populations’ can help to explain the gap between information and actionThu Jun 30 2022 - 05:15
Love and forgiveness are ultimately more important than justiceUnthinkable: Love and justice can clash but there is a strong case for saying one is more fundamental than the otherThu Jun 23 2022 - 05:15
Stop asking other people’s children: ‘What do you want to do?’Unthinkable: The language we use can heap pressure on young people – a more thoughtful use of words is neededThu Jun 16 2022 - 05:15
How does James Joyce rate as a philosopher?Unthinkable: Author of Ulysses asked big questions but it is not clear he wanted to answer themThu Jun 09 2022 - 05:00
Is assassination ever morally justifiable?Unthinkable: The logic of taking one life to save many seems to have a fatal flawThu Jun 02 2022 - 05:00
If I pay to skip the queue, what does that say about me?Unthinkable: ‘Tell me what you do as a passenger, and I’ll tell you who you are’Thu May 26 2022 - 05:00
A logical approach to parenting: Don’t endlessly negotiateUnthinkable: Scott Hershovitz advocates raising children who ‘eventually we can resent’Thu May 19 2022 - 05:00
Can someone with dementia access a deeper kind of wisdom?Unthinkable: Philosopher Noga Arikha seeks to make sense of dementiaThu May 12 2022 - 05:00
Be thankful for intellectual rivals, they can sharpen your mindUnthinkable: Historical clash between two Irish philosophers shows an upside to irritationThu May 05 2022 - 05:00
If you feel like the world is ending, you are not aloneUnthinkable: Predictions of the end of the world have all been wrong – so farThu Apr 28 2022 - 05:00
The meaning of facial hair, from ‘patriarchal’ beards to commitment-phobic stubbleUnthinkable: Is it time to lose the lockdown beard? To shave that noncommital stubble?Thu Apr 21 2022 - 05:00
Why free speech should be the most highly valued human rightUnthinkable: A book by Eric Heinze cuts through muddled thinking around rightsThu Apr 14 2022 - 05:00
How to change the world? Have more private conversationsUnthinkable: Social media can give the illusion that progress comes from making noiseThu Apr 07 2022 - 05:00
Is Will Smith experiencing ‘staircase wit’ after slapping Chris Rock?Unthinkable: Oscars incident provides teachable moment on ‘l’esprit de l’escalier’Wed Mar 30 2022 - 05:00
Do politicians have a moral duty to take refugees into their homes?Unthinkable: It is easy to fall prey to a category error when making ethical calculationsWed Mar 23 2022 - 05:00
Stop looking to holidays as the source of ultimate happinessUnthinkable: If the pandemic is over why do we not feel free?, asks Joe HumphreysThu Mar 17 2022 - 05:00
Putin is an evil little man, but why bring his height into it?Unthinkable: Is ‘Napoleon syndrome’ real or just heightist stereotyping?Thu Mar 10 2022 - 05:00
Should Ireland support Ukraine militarily? Try answering ‘No’Unthinkable: ‘Just war theory’ is not a licence for standing on the sidelines and hoping for peaceTue Mar 01 2022 - 05:00
Feeling out of step with everything? You’re in good companyUnthinkable: Lessons in logic from four celebrated women philosophersThu Feb 24 2022 - 05:00
Humans now control nature and can undo creation. So are we gods?Unthinkable: The idea of a human self cut off from wider creation is a relatively new conceptWed Feb 16 2022 - 13:22
Have you no shame? Because it could help you be a better personUnthinkable: Philosopher Owen Flanagan believes shame can have positive effectsThu Feb 10 2022 - 05:00
Would Ireland’s most celebrated philosopher invest in bitcoin?Unthinkable: George Berkeley championed the idea of publicly owned banks for the common goodThu Feb 03 2022 - 05:00
‘The term cancel culture is reductive and stupid’: The Good Place creator on modern moralsMichael Schur explains the relevance of great philosophical theories to everyday lifeSat Jan 29 2022 - 06:00
Virtual reality promises a guilt-free life: All the more reason to be wary of itUnthinkable: Philosopher David Chalmers believes ‘nonvirtual life’ has met its match but does his argument stack up?Thu Jan 27 2022 - 05:00
I think ‘hopeful pessimists’ have better lives than optimists – but I’m not positiveUnthinkable: It’s nice if your glass is always half full, but are you deluding yourself?Thu Jan 20 2022 - 05:00
Humans aren’t naturally egalitarian. We’re better than thatUnthinkable: David Graeber and David Wengrow bring fresh thinking to human historyThu Jan 13 2022 - 05:00
How to think better: Join a community philosophy clubUnthinkable: Community philosophers aim to overcome the subject’s ‘aristocratic’ imageThu Jan 06 2022 - 05:00
Values are not ‘just opinions’: How our moral teaching has gone wrongUnthinkable: A remarkable quartet of philosophers foresaw the risk of rejecting ‘moral facts’Thu Dec 30 2021 - 05:00
South Africa still has a lesson for North, says academic behind ‘peace safari’State papers: Padraig O’Malley’s 1997 trust-building trip was dubbed ‘rubbish’ by then taoiseachWed Dec 29 2021 - 10:35
If someone can be cancelled, someone can be uncancelled. Let’s start with Arthur GriffithUnthinkable: Are we losing the ability to judge historical figures fairly?Thu Dec 23 2021 - 05:00
The Unthinkable philosophical concept of the year is ... vice-chargingUnthinkable: Labelling people with unscientific views as stupid or immoral is not very wiseThu Dec 16 2021 - 05:00
How Erwin Schrödinger indulged his ‘Lolita complex’ in IrelandNobel Prize-winning physicist, who spent 17 years in Ireland, was a serial groomer of girlsSat Dec 11 2021 - 05:00
Do not like or share this article: Fighting back against technological ‘interruption’Unthinkable: Philosopher Bernard Stiegler explores how apps alter how you relate to yourselfThu Dec 09 2021 - 05:00
Is there a God? Why is there something instead of nothing? This article explains it allUnthinkable: No of course it doesn't, but it does try to address life’s ultimate questionsThu Dec 02 2021 - 05:00
Is your mind open enough to contemplate belief in God?Unthinkable: It’s not clear we have either the language or patience in Ireland for metaphysicsThu Nov 25 2021 - 05:00
What is Twitter doing to your brain?Unthinkable: New technology may give the impression your mind is no longer your ownThu Nov 18 2021 - 05:00
What should any one of us be expected to do to avert climate catastrophe?Unthinkable: Plus four other questions philosophers are asking as we face a global emergencyThu Nov 11 2021 - 05:00
Has Stoicism become a new religion?Unthinkable: Stoicism is all the rage in Silicon Valley but its roots are often overlookedThu Nov 04 2021 - 05:00
What Albert Camus can teach us about friendshipUnthinkable: Can you be friends with someone whose politics you oppose?Thu Oct 28 2021 - 05:00
Finding different ways to see and understand GodUnthinkable: Descriptions of the biblical deity come from ‘men, writing for men’Thu Oct 21 2021 - 05:00
Stop to think, and think to be happy: Hannah Arendt’s credo for lifeUnthinkable: Philosopher born this day 115 years ago believed that politics should be joyousThu Oct 14 2021 - 05:00
Should sectors that ‘win’ from climate change be taxed?Unthinkable: Philosophers are trying to broaden the debate by asking awkward questionsThu Oct 07 2021 - 05:00
How to win at arguments: Six philosophical tipsUnthinkable: Do you need to crush others with your intellect or is sowing doubt victory enough?Thu Sept 30 2021 - 05:00
Who is responsible if a self-driving car kills a pedestrian to save the driver?Unthinkable: Governments put their trust in big tech as they lack expertiseThu Sept 23 2021 - 05:00
Schrödinger’s Dublin: Cycling in the trail of exiled physicistCultural commute takes in sites associated with his 17-year stay in IrelandMon Sept 20 2021 - 16:35
Is your sense of reality in fact a hallucination?Unthinkable: We don’t know how consciousness works, but some theories are better than othersThu Sept 16 2021 - 05:00
How well do you understand your sense of smell? Try these three experimentsUnthinkable: Covid may have given us a fresh appreciation of smell, ‘the Cinderella of the senses’Thu Sept 09 2021 - 05:00
Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It – Or, how to be good to yourselfOliver Burkeman thinks we should ease up on ‘to-do lists’ and let go of our urge for controlFri Sept 03 2021 - 06:00
Can a bad historian be a good politician?Unthinkable: Polybius is not the most feted Greek thinker but he has much to teach usThu Sept 02 2021 - 05:00
Short of staycation ideas? Try a pilgrimage to Irish philosophy sitesUnthinkable: Ireland has a rich philosophical heritage – some more plaques would be niceThu Jul 22 2021 - 05:00