Should Ireland support Ukraine militarily? Try answering ‘No’Unthinkable: ‘Just war theory’ is not a licence for standing on the sidelines and hoping for peaceTue Mar 1 2022 - 05:00
Feeling out of step with everything? You’re in good companyUnthinkable: Lessons in logic from four celebrated women philosophersThu Feb 24 2022 - 05:00
Humans now control nature and can undo creation. So are we gods?Unthinkable: The idea of a human self cut off from wider creation is a relatively new conceptWed Feb 16 2022 - 13:22
Have you no shame? Because it could help you be a better personUnthinkable: Philosopher Owen Flanagan believes shame can have positive effectsThu Feb 10 2022 - 05:00
Would Ireland’s most celebrated philosopher invest in bitcoin?Unthinkable: George Berkeley championed the idea of publicly owned banks for the common goodThu Feb 3 2022 - 05:00
‘The term cancel culture is reductive and stupid’: The Good Place creator on modern moralsMichael Schur explains the relevance of great philosophical theories to everyday lifeSat Jan 29 2022 - 06:00
Virtual reality promises a guilt-free life: All the more reason to be wary of itUnthinkable: Philosopher David Chalmers believes ‘nonvirtual life’ has met its match but does his argument stack up?Thu Jan 27 2022 - 05:00
I think ‘hopeful pessimists’ have better lives than optimists – but I’m not positiveUnthinkable: It’s nice if your glass is always half full, but are you deluding yourself?Thu Jan 20 2022 - 05:00
Humans aren’t naturally egalitarian. We’re better than thatUnthinkable: David Graeber and David Wengrow bring fresh thinking to human historyThu Jan 13 2022 - 05:00
How to think better: Join a community philosophy clubUnthinkable: Community philosophers aim to overcome the subject’s ‘aristocratic’ imageThu Jan 6 2022 - 05:00
Values are not ‘just opinions’: How our moral teaching has gone wrongUnthinkable: A remarkable quartet of philosophers foresaw the risk of rejecting ‘moral facts’Thu Dec 30 2021 - 05:00
South Africa still has a lesson for North, says academic behind ‘peace safari’State papers: Padraig O’Malley’s 1997 trust-building trip was dubbed ‘rubbish’ by then taoiseachWed Dec 29 2021 - 10:35
If someone can be cancelled, someone can be uncancelled. Let’s start with Arthur GriffithUnthinkable: Are we losing the ability to judge historical figures fairly?Thu Dec 23 2021 - 05:00
The Unthinkable philosophical concept of the year is ... vice-chargingUnthinkable: Labelling people with unscientific views as stupid or immoral is not very wiseThu Dec 16 2021 - 05:00
How Erwin Schrödinger indulged his ‘Lolita complex’ in IrelandNobel Prize-winning physicist, who spent 17 years in Ireland, was a serial groomer of girlsSat Dec 11 2021 - 05:00
Do not like or share this article: Fighting back against technological ‘interruption’Unthinkable: Philosopher Bernard Stiegler explores how apps alter how you relate to yourselfThu Dec 9 2021 - 05:00
Is there a God? Why is there something instead of nothing? This article explains it allUnthinkable: No of course it doesn't, but it does try to address life’s ultimate questionsThu Dec 2 2021 - 05:00
Is your mind open enough to contemplate belief in God?Unthinkable: It’s not clear we have either the language or patience in Ireland for metaphysicsThu Nov 25 2021 - 05:00
What is Twitter doing to your brain?Unthinkable: New technology may give the impression your mind is no longer your ownThu Nov 18 2021 - 05:00
What should any one of us be expected to do to avert climate catastrophe?Unthinkable: Plus four other questions philosophers are asking as we face a global emergencyThu Nov 11 2021 - 05:00
Has Stoicism become a new religion?Unthinkable: Stoicism is all the rage in Silicon Valley but its roots are often overlookedThu Nov 4 2021 - 05:00
What Albert Camus can teach us about friendshipUnthinkable: Can you be friends with someone whose politics you oppose?Thu Oct 28 2021 - 05:00
Finding different ways to see and understand GodUnthinkable: Descriptions of the biblical deity come from ‘men, writing for men’Thu Oct 21 2021 - 05:00
Stop to think, and think to be happy: Hannah Arendt’s credo for lifeUnthinkable: Philosopher born this day 115 years ago believed that politics should be joyousThu Oct 14 2021 - 05:00
Should sectors that ‘win’ from climate change be taxed?Unthinkable: Philosophers are trying to broaden the debate by asking awkward questionsThu Oct 7 2021 - 05:00
How to win at arguments: Six philosophical tipsUnthinkable: Do you need to crush others with your intellect or is sowing doubt victory enough?Thu Sep 30 2021 - 05:00
Who is responsible if a self-driving car kills a pedestrian to save the driver?Unthinkable: Governments put their trust in big tech as they lack expertiseThu Sep 23 2021 - 05:00
Schrödinger’s Dublin: Cycling in the trail of exiled physicistCultural commute takes in sites associated with his 17-year stay in IrelandMon Sep 20 2021 - 16:35
Is your sense of reality in fact a hallucination?Unthinkable: We don’t know how consciousness works, but some theories are better than othersThu Sep 16 2021 - 05:00
How well do you understand your sense of smell? Try these three experimentsUnthinkable: Covid may have given us a fresh appreciation of smell, ‘the Cinderella of the senses’Thu Sep 9 2021 - 05:00
Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It – Or, how to be good to yourselfOliver Burkeman thinks we should ease up on ‘to-do lists’ and let go of our urge for controlFri Sep 3 2021 - 06:00
Can a bad historian be a good politician?Unthinkable: Polybius is not the most feted Greek thinker but he has much to teach usThu Sep 2 2021 - 05:00
Short of staycation ideas? Try a pilgrimage to Irish philosophy sitesUnthinkable: Ireland has a rich philosophical heritage – some more plaques would be niceThu Jul 22 2021 - 05:00
Was Ireland’s greatest philosopher a hero, villain or ‘man of his time’?Unthinkable: A new biography of George Berkeley brings out the complexity of his characterThu Jul 15 2021 - 05:00
Euro 2020: How Irish people should feel – philosophically speaking – about England’s lossFeeling gleeful? Schopenhauer wouldn’t approve, but Nietzsche would understandMon Jul 12 2021 - 09:16
Work is Ireland’s new religion, unemployment its new sinUnthinkable: Our religious devotion to work stigmatises those who are less productiveThu Jul 8 2021 - 05:00
Searching for the ultimate meaning of life? Join the clubUnthinkable: Men may be more susceptible to imagining there’s an instruction manual to be foundThu Jul 1 2021 - 05:00
Before toppling any statues, ask yourself: Am I on the right side of history?Unthinkable: Don’t criticise philosopher David Hume for racism until you look in the mirrorThu Jun 24 2021 - 11:29
Would you vote for a philosopher to become taoiseach?Unthinkable: Covid-19 has exposed societal injustices. Persuading people to address them remains a challengeThu Jun 17 2021 - 05:00
Are you capable of listening without ‘waiting for your chance to talk’?Unthinkable: Philosopher Rob Grant has written a children’s book with a message for adultsThu Jun 10 2021 - 05:00
Speak out at your peril: Self-censorship and the smothering of academiaUnthinkable: Commercial interests and social-media outrage are curtailing free speechThu Jun 3 2021 - 05:00
A Hut at the Edge of the Village: never preachy, deeply moralBook review: John Moriarty’s musings on life real and imagined skilfully edited by Martin ShawSun May 30 2021 - 06:00
If people are naturally kind, why is there so much cruelty?Unthinkable: Evolutionary biology suggests our natural instinct is to be niceThu May 27 2021 - 05:00
Five (and a bit) steps to a better life: What philosophy tells usUnthinkable: Do we need more books promoting self-mystification? Yes, we doThu May 20 2021 - 05:00
The secret of career happiness? Stop being ‘pointlessly busy’Unthinkable: Four great philosophers have life advice that’s still relevant todayThu May 13 2021 - 05:00
Can you suspend belief in everything? An intellectual challengeUnthinkable: Phenomenology may make your head hurt but it’s trying ‘to teach us to see again’Thu May 6 2021 - 05:00
‘Should we be buying from Amazon rather than working to keep a place like Nenagh alive?’Unthinkable: Fr Sean McDonagh is increasingly worried about the power of big techThu Apr 29 2021 - 05:00
Should we cancel Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche?Unthinkable: Famous philosophers are being reappraised in light of their prejudicesThu Apr 22 2021 - 05:00
Do we really care about right and wrong, or are we just virtue signalling?Unthinkable: Morality has got humans this far, but do we need to outgrow it?Thu Apr 15 2021 - 05:00
Telling men to open up is not enough – teach them howUnthinkable: We can all learn from psychotherapy, perhaps the best place to start is schoolThu Apr 8 2021 - 05:00