Nihilism & Crisis
Carl Sagan's pale blue dot makes our problems look small. Against performative nihilism, and the surrender it hides.
All essays
Philosophy
Stoicism
Epictetus was a slave, Marcus Aurelius an emperor. What their philosophy offers against the hedonism of adult life today.
Philosophy
Sense and Morality
Science grew out of philosophy but can't yet answer meaning. On the void that leaves, and the easy ideas that rush to fill it.
Philosophy
Debates: Are they leading to something?
From Israel and Palestine to music players, debates pit fixed positions against each other. Do they ever lead anywhere?
UBI: Idealism & Populism
Universal basic income tries to fix poverty and automation at once. They are different problems, and one cheque solves neither.
Philosophy
Christianity & Morality
Before Jesus wrote in the dirt, a crowd was sure stoning was moral. On the woman taken in adultery and moral certainty.
Philosophy
Free Will
Laws, identity and an unconscious brain that decides first: following Sam Harris, how much free will do we actually have?
Politics
E-Democracy
21st-century citizens, 19th-century institutions. What politics could learn from start-ups about measuring what policies achieve.
Individual freedom against Society well-being
Utopias justify their means. Why fixed ideas do more harm than ideas that change, from women's suffrage to boardroom quotas.
Democracies XXI: Politics new paradigm
Technology has raced ahead for 200 years while politics barely moved. Why democracies keep rewarding short-term demagogues.
Demagogism and populism
Are today's populists really populists? Two words we use as one, and why demagogue fits the leaders better.