Nigel Warburton
03 September 2025
Why Authoritarians can't silence journalists
In today's world, media doesn't need AI - it needs real journalists
Read the full article27 August 2025
Why xenophobes love flags
A cross of St George or a union jack flown today means the same as it did in 1977: ‘You’re not welcome here’
Read the full article13 August 2025
There are no prizes for trophy hunting
Like bullfighting, this practice shows little respect for animals’ capacity to suffer and turns their deaths into a spectacle
Read the full article06 August 2025
The Online Safety Bill is in danger of going too far
We’re on the road to surveillance hell but there’s still time to change direction
Read the full article30 July 2025
Does everything come down to Luck?
There is a difference between riding your luck and being lucky, just ask Leah Williamson and the Lionesses
Read the full article23 July 2025
We're missing the bigger picture behind Sycamore Gap
If its value was that it was greatly appreciated by so many people, do the individual trees being felled largely unseen in Brazilian rainforests count for less?
Read the full article16 July 2025
Thoreau and the power of civil disobedience
The American philosopher championed ideas that inspired the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr – as well as the protests of today
Read the full article09 July 2025
We can't just ignore bad news
Those who turn their back on world news and just get on with their lives inside a protective bubble are part of the problem
Read the full article02 July 2025
What would Rousseau think of Bezos's wedding?
If Rousseau is right, it’s not just Venice and Bezos that are sinking. We all are
Read the full article25 June 2025
What to do with the climate crisis free-riders
The human cost of air pollution is too high to ignore. But, how do we tackle those individuals who won't change their ways?
Read the full article18 June 2025
Why the world needs debate
An open exchange of ideas, no matter how controversial or unpopular, is the best way to get closer to the truth
Read the full article11 June 2025
How to make the perfect cosmopolitan
As the world lurches back towards nationalism and isolationism, does cosmopolitanism and its liberal philosophies have a place today?
Read the full article05 June 2025
Alasdair MacIntyre’s moral bombshell
The philosopher’s 1981 book After Virtue suggested that modern morality is fragmented and rootless – an argument that still stands today
Read the full article28 May 2025
Where is God when children are starving?
Atheists have a simple answer: it is evidence that God doesn’t exist, while believers say the gift of human free will brings with it the possibility of doing evil
Read the full article21 May 2025
John Stuart Mill and the price of genius
The philosopher lost his childhood at the expense of his father's educational experiment. It was far too high a price for anyone to pay
Read the full article14 May 2025
Bertrand Russell: lessons from a pacifist prophet
Many secular philosophers have opposed war and particular wars, but Russell stands in a class apart
Read the full article07 May 2025
The tangled truths of Søren Kierkegaard
Thinkers like Kierkegaard used complexity and literary style, rather than clarity, to provoke reflection on existential questions
Read the full article30 April 2025
Inside the minds of extremists
The media often describes terrorists as manifestations of evil, or as zombie-like products of indoctrination, but we urgently need a better account than that
Read the full article16 April 2025
How to live like Sartre and Beauvoir
The philosophical power couple lived in freedom, but that came at a cost for others around them
Read the full article09 April 2025
The myth of the lone genius
When we see something that’s well-crafted it’s very tempting to assume that it was designed by one person. But that tendency can lead us astray
Read the full article02 April 2025
Ernst Gombrich and the art of seeing
The Austrian-born art historian’s bestselling books revolutionised our understanding of artistic perception
Read the full article26 March 2025
What is the meaning of life?
James Bailey’s new book attempts to finally answer humanity’s oldest and most profound question
Read the full article19 March 2025
Can Cop30 solve its ethical dilemma?
Thousands of trees are being felled in the Amazon rainforest to build a four-lane highway for this year’s climate summit in Belém
Read the full article12 March 2025
Everyday Philosophy: Why corporal punishment must be banned
Modelling physical violence as a way of controlling other people is bad in itself, but emotional damage for victims can be long-lasting and debilitating, too
Read the full article05 March 2025
Everyday Philosophy: John Cage and the sound of silence
A collective called the 1000 Artists have followed in the composer’s footsteps by releasing a silent protest album
Read the full article26 February 2025
How we fuel our philosophers
From Voltaire to Kant, the world would be a duller place without the discipline’s coffee-fuelled breakthroughs
Read the full article12 February 2025
Why does mobile theft feel so personal?
For philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers, phone crime is ‘more akin to assault’
Read the full article05 February 2025
Trump’s bullying tactics
Eventually, when a bully has got out of control and he’s made enough enemies, he may find the roles of bully and bullied reversed
Read the full article29 January 2025
Don Cupitt, the priest who didn’t believe in God
Despite once being a practising clergyman, the late Cupitt was noted for his radical ideas on ‘non-realist’ philosophy of religion
Read the full article22 January 2025
What would George Orwell think of Facebook?
On the 75th anniversary of the author’s death, some of his most famous words read as a warning
Read the full article15 January 2025
How to survive a near death experience
These experiences, however, are far from conclusive evidence of life after death
Read the full article08 January 2025
Do humans need to hibernate?
The Oxford-based sleep scientist Vladyslav Vyazovskiy believes so, but it would just make life blander
Read the full article