Conflicting views
If you’re lucky enough to have several million dollars more than you need, what should you do with this money? One answer is that you should do whatever you want, at least within the bounds of legality: it’s…
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Essays, interviews and ideas from New Philosopher.
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Organised sound
Zan Boag: I’d like to start with one of your books, This Is Your Brain on Music, in which you describe music as ‘organised…
Wisdom and philosophy
Wisdom is a word that features in book titles in the ‘Self-help’ section of bookshops, but not so much in the ‘Philosophy’ section (where…
Winners of the 50 prizes for our 50th edition
To celebrate the publication of our 50th edition, we're giving away 50 prizes to subscribers, with first prize a 50-edition subscription (up to our…
From Ideas to change your life
Lessons from stupidity
It is unclear just how the “Man from Song” (Songren) acquired his reputation, but classical literature is replete with stories of his stupidity. These…
Fixing the living to make a killing
Do you trust your doctor? Should you trust your doctor? A recent op-ed in The New York Times suggests that doctor-patient trust is wavering.…
Learning not to die
It probably says something telling about human beings that the oldest surviving piece of literature is about our longing to overcome death. The Sumerian…
Word to the wise
The 21st century has created a whole range of new types of professional that we have never had before – or if not quite…
A clear look
“What we can know, and what we can understand, is so influenced by our location in time that it is impossible for us to…
Showing off that shiny red rump
I despise gyms. I honestly couldn’t tell you if it is the nauseating funk emanating from dozens of perspiring bodies therein or the mind-numbing…
NFN: A form of power
“No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.” — Niels Bohr In quantum physics, the ‘observer effect’ refers…
Can we make love stay?
The breakup of a high-profile Hollywood couple in 2004 was an underappreciated moment. When asked about it in an interview, one of the pair…
Life without anger
It’s rarely a good idea to take advice from a philosopher. (And yes, I’m a philosopher offering you that advice.) But when your brother…
