Philosophy

Martin De Saulles appreciates a subtle analysis of consciousness and what it means for artificial intelligence

Book of the week: Zoë Waxman is fascinated by an ambitious argument about taking responsibility for the past injustices of which we are beneficiaries

Michael Wheeler enjoys an account of how philosophy can illuminate many aspects of ‘the beautiful game’

Steven Rose is unconvinced by an ambitious attempt to explain consciousness

Tributes paid to a ‘philosopher’s philosopher’ 

Constantine Sandis praises a bold account of how our thought is inextricably bound up with our interactions with the world

Lior Erez is largely impressed by an attempt to adapt the ancient ideals of cosmopolitanism to the challenges of today

Book of the week: Jane O’Grady assesses a bold analysis of how ‘modernity’ failed to live up to the ideals of the Enlightenment

Book of the week: Matthew Joseph is impressed by an analysis of how states fail to live up to the obligations to their citizens

Book of the week: Joe Moran applauds a bold attempt to demonstrate why it is the finitude of our lives that gives them value

In today’s political and psychological climate, teaching some liberal arts standards has become an abyss to avoid, says Crispin Sartwell

Stephen Mumford considers a bold attempt to unravel what we mean by the little word ‘not’

Ursula King enjoys an insiders’ account of a leading ecological and spiritual thinker

Robert A. Segal is wary of an attempt to offer a definitive new interpretation of Jung

John Shand wrestles with a difficult but intriguing account of the background noise that sets the stage for sound

Book of the week: Robert Eaglestone praises a dazzlingly wide-ranging analysis of the choices we don’t make

Lincoln Allison is unimpressed by an attempt to promote plebeianism as a political philosophy

Jonathan Mirsky applauds an analysis that links age-old traditions of thought with politics today

Book of the week: Steven Rose praises a bold new attempt to explain the origins and nature of consciousness

Why was the Russian empress drawn to a French intellectual opponent? asks Yvonne Sherratt

Tributes paid to pioneering philosopher who established guidelines on embryo research in the UK

Constantine Sandis praises a superbly translated volume of epistles that swings seamlessly between mundane trivialities and profound insights

Human rights are rooted in the ancient concept of a universal natural law, observes Jane O’Grady

Book of the week: We all like to make-believe, says Dale Salwak, who wishes the author had not revealed so many secrets

Regina Rini discusses how academics and students can avoid online aggression

Book of the week: Lincoln Allison mulls the consequences of a cultural shift from traditional morality to reason

It’s not too soon to consider the rights of machines, and this timely book offers a clear way to do just that, says Kate Devlin

Lloyd Strickland welcomes an entertaining journey through non-Western philosophies

The academy is not the military. Addressing fellow scholars by their surnames only is unnatural and disrespectful, says David Benatar 

Book of the week: if the material world does not exhaust reality, what lies beyond? asks Simon Oliver

Linguists also concerned about the creation of modern-language ‘deserts’

Book of the week: Alexandre Lefebvre asks whether it is possible to cultivate a liberal character in the modern world

Scholars in Riga and the UK explain why political theorist is still worth studying

The furore over Brian Wansink’s data handling overlooks the fact that science should above all be about explanation, argues Martin Cohen

Terence Kealey welcomes a superb introduction to a laissez-faire philosophy

Justifications of suicide may risk promoting it, but censoring one side of an ancient argument would shortchange students, says David Baumeister

Scholarly prose can be verbose and unclear, and can obscure the point you are trying to make. Joe Moran offers his top 10 tips for writing well

Human beings’ need for religion goes far beyond the management of emotions, says Ursula King

This discussion of in what sense an artist owns their artwork is at its most interesting when discussing the paradoxes of ‘appropriation art’, says Jane O’Grady

Elegant theories provide a new narrative about Presocratic philosophers, writes Emma Gee

The differences between Jesus and philosophers cannot be ignored, writes Robert Segal

If you want to learn to argue better, don’t ditch emotion, argues Tony Mann

A one-sided account of a conflict between an eminent professor and an Oscar-winning film-maker is both upbeat and challenging, finds Howard Segal

The philosopher on coming face-to-face with death in Bangladesh, why academics don’t like him, and Brexit

Heather Widdows says ‘powder, paint, leather and heels’ have helped her to ‘unsettle and undermine the status quo’

Book of the week: life is full of inescapable sorrows; dealing with them takes grace and grit, K. E. Gover learns

Prisoners rarely get tertiary lessons, let alone have undergraduates study alongside them, but the results can be profound. Helen Lock reports

The next warden of Rhodes House on growing up in a family of political refugees and why universities must prepare graduates to be good citizens

Academic focus on ideas from a small range of European countries would not be tolerated in other disciplines, says Lloyd Strickland

The internet impedes human interactions, warps civilised discourse and aggravates misunderstandings, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto 

Their emphasis on cultivating understanding makes universities natural homes for those at war with their societies, says Shahidha Bari

Book of the week: Biancamaria Fontana on a masterly defence of the values of modernity against ‘progressophobes’

John Shand welcomes a timely survey of the work of a newly fashionable philosopher

Books offer an experience, evidence trail and egalitarianism that could never be digitised, say Al Martinich and Tom Palaima

The broad trends in AI may be unstoppable, but we must find better ways of directing and regulating them, argues Toronto’s Mark Kingwell

Leo Mellor on a work that explores a group of writers for whom questions about time, selfhood and reality led not to introspection or aesthetic withdrawal but to a desire to change the world

John Gilbey on a welcome guide to the thorny legal and ethical issues of a new technological era 

Donation from investor Bill Miller will create new professorships and provide student support

An attack on the foundation of modern Western society has an absolutist ring to Jane O’Grady

Scholars seek to ‘call out’ workshops they see as far too soft on empire