Philosophers on the ‘intriguing ethics’ of sex robotsUnthinkable: Sexbots are under development. Don't ban them, an academic team advisesTue Nov 21 2017 - 06:05
Lack of critical thinking in schools and society a concern - HigginsPresident says that Emmanuel Macron’s ‘rhetoric’ won’t be enough to save EuropeThu Nov 16 2017 - 20:19
Never mind ‘Tiger Mom’, how does one parent ethically?Unthinkable: Parents have no rule book but they can make better or worse arguments for exercising powerTue Nov 14 2017 - 06:05
Is it ever really okay to forgive terrorist atrocities?The 30th anniversary of the Enniskillen bombing raises questions over the ethics of forgivenessWed Nov 8 2017 - 18:08
What does the rise of China mean for western values?Unthinkable: Chinese philosophy advocates virtue and social harmony – two things badly needed in public lifeTue Nov 7 2017 - 06:05
What future has the essay in a social media age?Unthinkable: Despite today’s fashion for talking in tweets, there’s life in the old art formTue Oct 31 2017 - 06:05
Pragmatism: A philosophy that’s as sensible as it is unpopularUnthinkable: People don’t like to compromise because it means admitting one’s fallibilityTue Oct 24 2017 - 06:15
Is your school ‘tastefully’ Catholic? The branding of educationUnthinkable: Snobbery surrounding First Communion shows up deep divisions in societyTue Oct 17 2017 - 06:05
How does anyone become an expert on anything?Unthinkable: To become an expert you need to embrace a set of scientific valuesTue Oct 10 2017 - 06:15
Does the scale of the universe make human life pointless?Unthinkable: Reflecting on our place within the cosmos can be deflatingTue Oct 3 2017 - 06:01
A new way of thinking about animal welfareUnthinkable: Eating the odd beef steak may be more ethical than living off eggs and fishTue Sep 19 2017 - 17:02
Playing video games? No, I’m doing philosophyUnthinkable: Gaming can teach us ‘how to prepare for death’, a new book arguesTue Sep 19 2017 - 06:30
A plan to save Europe: Pay every EU citizen a ‘Eurodividend’Unthinkable: Finland has piloted a basic income scheme; could the EU follow suit?Tue Sep 12 2017 - 06:15
Why poorly-designed cities are bad for your mental healthUnthinkable: Bad environmental design can cause stress, alienation and even depressionTue Sep 5 2017 - 06:15
Onora O’Neill: ‘We have some very skilful faking going on’It’s getting harder to distinguish between truth and lies but ‘people can learn to make better judgements’ about who to trust, says the Northern Irish philosopherSat Aug 26 2017 - 06:00
Paul Ricoeur: The philosopher behind Emmanuel MacronUnthinkable: Macron studied under Ricoeur. What could it mean for his presidency?Tue May 30 2017 - 10:04
What does sport tell us about morality?Unthinkable: Each sporting code has its own moral customs but that doesn't necessarily mean all ethics is relativeWed May 24 2017 - 07:14
Aristotle got it wrong: We have a lot more than five sensesUnthinkable: Philosophers need to grapple with the ‘symphony of senses’ being discovered by scienceTue May 16 2017 - 06:00
Is it possible for anxiety to be cured?Unthinkable: The philosopher may give you a very different answer to the therapistTue May 9 2017 - 05:00
How to spot when politicians are misrepresenting scienceUnthinkable: Cherry-picking facts and nitpicking are common political ploysTue May 2 2017 - 01:00
Who should you trust and why?Unthinkable: We should cut experts more slack for telling us what we don’t want to hear, says philosopher Lizzie FrickerTue Apr 25 2017 - 06:00
Idlers of the world unite: Why the work ethic needs to be resistedUnthinkable: The problems of modern labour call for a ‘collective and structural solution’, says David FrayneMon Apr 17 2017 - 08:00
Dear atheists, please stop calling religion a memeUnthinkable: ‘Catholic agnostic’ Gary Gutting criticises pseudoscientific putdowns of religionSun Apr 9 2017 - 08:00
Can science ever tell us whether free will exists?Brain experiments have yet to shed light on the ‘freedom that matters’, says philosopher Markus SchlosserSun Apr 2 2017 - 01:00
In defence of hedonismUnthinkable: Far from being party people, true hedonists are sensible individualsMon Mar 27 2017 - 17:59
How do we distinguish good businesses from evil ones?Unthinkable: Companies have a duty to provide ‘meaning’ in society. An anti-evil slogan isn't enoughMon Mar 20 2017 - 15:58
Unthinkable: What lies behind your self-esteem?Flourishing in life starts with putting trust in yourself, argues philosopher Anna BortolanTue Mar 14 2017 - 09:58
Christian Brothers withdrawal is not first clash over divestmentEntity managing property interests initially refused to surrender vacant school premisesFri Mar 10 2017 - 12:17
Unthinkable: How do we ‘know’ anything?Relativist thinkers are providing a ‘smokescreen’ for the likes of Donald Trump, warns professor of logic Timothy WilliamsonMon Mar 6 2017 - 09:28
Why not taking offence will make you – and the world – betterUnthinkable: Donald Trump may make your skin crawl but your anger ‘destroys you’ not him, argues Brant HansenTue Feb 21 2017 - 00:00
Unthinkable: Why ‘meaning’ should be part of the school vocabularyStudents should ask ‘what’s the point?’ rather than ‘how many points?’Mon Feb 20 2017 - 16:40
Enda Kenny’s ‘mea culpa’: the science of false memoryResearch shows faulty recall is more likely to happen when you are stressed or overloadedWed Feb 15 2017 - 11:08
Unthinkable: Why it makes sense to be a neo-LudditeAI is displacing jobs – we need a ‘union 2.0’ to fight back, says William MyersMon Feb 13 2017 - 14:03
Have you ever had ‘unjust sex’?Unthinkable: Examples include ‘women being pressured – not quite to the point of outright coercion – to have sex, or to have sex without contraception’, says philosopher Ann CahillSun Feb 5 2017 - 15:32
Why new technology is draining meaning from your jobJob insecurity and technology have created a crisis in today’s workplaceSat Feb 4 2017 - 06:00
Unthinkable: Should we always put human rights first?‘Empowerment is crucial for people with impaired capacity’ but it isn’t the only thing of value, says Prof Mary DonnellyMon Jan 30 2017 - 15:02
Five signs you share Donald Trump’s ‘gapped’ logicThe US president’s rhetoric has the hallmarks of a cognitive ‘stuttering’ that’s creeping into schools, argues Fiachra LongMon Jan 23 2017 - 13:37
Unthinkable: The Islamic thinker who ‘proved’ God existsMedieval philosophers don’t get much attention these days but Avicenna deserves it, says Prof Peter AdamsonMon Jan 16 2017 - 16:07
Unthinkable: We lie to ourselves more than to othersSelf-deception is rife, says Colm Fitzgerald, and our education system is to blameMon Jan 9 2017 - 10:51
Does a disability necessarily make you worse off?‘Being disabled is a way of being a minority,’ says philosopher Elizabeth BarnesTue Dec 13 2016 - 01:01
How Friedrich Nietzsche helps to explain BrexitUnthinkable: The German philosopher foresaw the rise of ‘petty politics’ in Europe, says author Hugo DrochonMon Dec 5 2016 - 20:54
Why Ireland’s citizens’ assembly is a model for EuropeUnthinkable: Deliberative democracy experiment shows Ireland ‘trusts its citizens, instead of fearing them’Sun Nov 27 2016 - 16:38
How religion can be taught in a ‘neutral’ wayIrish schools introducing the new ‘religions and ethics’ course can learn from the Berlin experienceMon Nov 21 2016 - 19:30
Teach philosophy to heal our ‘post-truth’ society, says President HigginsPresident highlights need for citizens to identify ‘illusory rhetoric’ after recent eventsSun Nov 20 2016 - 18:24
Let’s reimagine democracy: replace elections with lotteriesBrexit and the Trump presidency are making people ask whether the current form of democracy is the best we can doSat Nov 19 2016 - 06:00
Want a kinder world? Then seek help‘To be truly benevolent we should solicit the kindness of others,’ argues lecturer Seán MoranTue Nov 15 2016 - 11:06
World Philosophy Day: We need to start talking about life’s ‘meaning’If the world stops making sense, call the philosopherTue Nov 15 2016 - 01:00
Has democracy become a threat to the planet?Unthinkable: Democratic politics have not been good to the environment, but it needn’t be so, says Diarmuid TorneyMon Nov 7 2016 - 15:09
What Aristotle can teach us about friendshipSomething you won’t hear on Facebook: only the virtuous can be true friendsTue Nov 1 2016 - 01:00
Does science have all the answers?No, says Susan Haack, but scientists are generally better at producing answers than philosophersTue Oct 25 2016 - 10:14