MAYBE MIND-ALTERING
Caves All The Way Down
Do psychedelics give access to a universal, mystical experience of reality, or is that just a culture-bound illusion?
aeon
MORE THAN JUST CHICKEN
If You Want To Eat Clean And Green, Is The Future Halal?
For younger Muslims, the term halal has broken free of the basic rules of conduct once adhered to by their immigrant parents to encompass a wider set of welfare and lifestyle choices, including education, healthcare, travel, cosmetics, modesty fashion and financial products, as well as experiences such as birthdays, weddings and events.
WE'RE NOT IN THE MOOD
The Quantified Heart
Artificial intelligence promises ever more control over the highs and lows of our emotions. Uneasy? Perhaps you should be
CLASS WARFARE IS IN SESSION
Private Schools Are Anti-Democratic — Can They Be Redeemed?
As inequality pulls at the seams of the social fabric of the developed world, private schools have faced strong criticism for their role in reproducing advantage.
THEY LIVED
Think Everyone Died Young In Ancient Societies? Think Again
People in the past were not all dead by 30. Ancient documents confirm this.
IT'S ON THE WALL
The Deep Roots Of Writing
Was writing invented for accounting and administration or did it evolve from religious movements, sorcery and dreams?
WE'LL ADAPT
The Earth's Carrying Capacity For Human Life Is Not Fixed
We have been engineering our environments to more productively serve human needs for tens of millennia.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
The Fallacy Of Obviousness
A new interpretation of a classic psychology experiment will change your view of perception, judgment and even human nature.
INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE
Scholarly Publishing Is Broken. Here's How To Fix It
A global community to coordinate and regain control — to develop a public open-access infrastructure — of research and scholarly communication for the public good is long overdue.
WE'RE AZTECS NOW
Life On The Slippery Earth
Aztec moral philosophy has profound differences from the Greek tradition, not least its acceptance that nobody is perfect.
WILL NOT GET LEFT BEHIND
The Many Deaths Of Liberalism
More than a century of death notices have not diminished the achievements and the necessity of liberalism
PHILOSOPHY SHRUGGED
Ignoring Ayn Rand Won't Make Her Go Away
Philosophers love to hate Ayn Rand. It's trendy to scoff at any mention of her. One philosopher told me that: "No one needs to be exposed to that monster."
MATTERS SMALL AND LARGE
Has The Quest For Top-Down Unification Of Physics Stalled?
After the success of the Standard Model, experiments have stopped answering to grand theories. Is particle physics in crisis?
NO EASY ANSWER
When Should A Therapist Decide To Break Confidentiality?
I was shaken and transfixed in the aftermath of the shootings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Like most of those in the United States, prevention was on my mind.
LOOKING INSIDE
What Are We?
On Paul Gauguin, authenticity and the midlife crisis: how the philosopher Bernard Williams dramatized moral luck.
HELLO WORLD
What If ET Is An AI?
After centuries searching for extraterrestrial life, we might find that first contact is not with organic creatures at all.
PLANNED UNPARENTHOOD
Eugenics Never Went Away
Thought eugenics died with the Nazis? Think again: the eugenic program of sterilizing the "unfit" continues even today.
FREE LOVE IN THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
The Revolutionary Sex
For one shining moment, being a Russian woman meant sexual freedom and radical equality. Never seen before — or since.
A MAJOR LIFT
Ringing The Chords Of The Universe: How Music Influenced Science
It's no surprise that mathematics has influenced music. But did you know that the influence goes both ways?
NOT-SO-SIMPLE RULE
How Nations Stay Together
Nations come with a vast array of peoples, languages and histories, but the strong ones share three simple things
