[This should probably have gone in last week’s Shame Week…but seeing as it’s Valentine’s Day, here is a post I wrote two years ago about my experience internet dating.] The phrase ‘disruptive technologies’ usually refers to the way new inventions … Continue reading
This week, we’re going to do some posts on love, to consider and carry ourselves through Valentine’s Day. Our first post is a short talk by Roman Krznaric. Roman was our speaker at the London Philosophy Club last week (and … Continue reading
As part of #shameweek, I want to sketch a theory of shame’s crucial place in liberalism and in critiques of liberalism. Secular liberalism, which was born in Athens in the fifth century BC, replaced the gods of Olympus with the … Continue reading
Over at the New York Times’ excellent Opinionator blog, philosophers Peter Singer and Agata Sagan ponder whether we should all be prescribed ‘morality pills’ to make us more altruistic. The authors write: Researchers at the University of Chicago recently took … Continue reading
An interesting piece in the New York Times, looking at the growing amount of academic interest in the emotion of disgust: Disgust is having its moment in the light as researchers find that it does more than cause that sick … Continue reading
Alain de Botton keeps coming up with new projects for his religion for atheists, and I admire his energy and willingness to put his ideas into practice. It’s refreshing. His latest plan takes very concrete form: he wants to build … Continue reading
For fans of Stoicism, here is a rare chance to watch the master, Professor Anthony Long of Berkeley College, giving a talk on Marcus Aurelius. Long is perhaps most to be credited with reviving the academic study of Stoicism, which … Continue reading
Yesterday I got the chance to meet the neuroscientist Tali Sharot and discuss her new book, The Optimism Bias, on Radio 3’s Night Waves. You can listen to the show here – it’s the last segment. I enjoyed Tali’s book, … Continue reading
This is a review of Simon May’s Love: A History, by guest-blogger Lesel Dawson, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Bristol University. She is the author of Lovesickness and Gender in Early Modern English Literature (OUP, 2008), and is currently working … Continue reading
In the UK today, the Commission on Assisted Dying published the results of its year-long inquiry today, recommending that English law be changed so that it is legal to assist the suicide of anyone over 18 suffering from a terminal … Continue reading