Philosopher's Zone

Einstein insisted that time is something that clocks measure. Case closed? Not quite. Welcome to the new season of The Philosopher's Zone

After science, where to for human nature? Simon Blackburn has some ideas.

Research on a human-like artificial intelligence has hit a dead end. The way forward could be in the hands of the philosophers.

Agnes Heller has had her share of 20th century travails. From the Holocaust to Stalinism she has sailed close to modernity’s darkest moments.

Picking a fight with the Stoics is not for the faint-hearted. But for one scholar of antiquity it’s necessary for the sake of human happiness.

Some understand him as a Teutonic version of Marshall McLuhan. They both peered into the black box of modern, mediated life but Friedrich Kittler’s understandings of the machine were altogether different.

Aristotle‘s lost book on plants might have helped plants climb the philosophical trellis.  As it stands though, they remain low on the hierarchy of sentience. Perhaps, the time has come for some serious plant thinking.

His image is used to sell coffee and his most famous of lines is spoken in jest. Descartes might have changed the course of philosophy but it will take a fresh portrait to save him from cliché.

Why let the Cartesian mind-body split stand in the way of a successful business pitch? For better results, use Heidegger.

There is nothing new about a philosopher thinking about love. But it takes a slightly different hue in the era of neuroscience.