Is your sense of reality in fact a hallucination?Unthinkable: We don’t know how consciousness works, but some theories are better than othersThu Sept 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 Sept 09 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 Sept 03 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 Sept 02 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 08 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 01 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 03 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 06 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 08 2021 - 05:00
What’s it like to go mad? Meet the man who found outUnthinkable: Psychosis gave Dutch linguist Wouter Kusters an insight into mental illnessThu Apr 01 2021 - 05:00
The problem today is we trust too much, not too littleUnthinkable: Is our faith in algorithms creating the basis for a counter-Enlightenment?Thu Mar 25 2021 - 05:00
Why are people so sensitive about cultural appropriation?Unthinkable: Tolü Makay can sing Saw Doctors. A rich playboy should not perform Amanda GormanThu Mar 18 2021 - 05:00
Is your Covid pandemic the same as my Covid pandemic?Unthinkable: Phenomenologists are trying to make us see the current crisis in a new lightThu Mar 11 2021 - 05:00
Your ‘marshmallow brain’ vs your ‘acorn brain’: Breaking the short-term thinking habitUnthinkable: Acorn brain worries about pensions. Marshmallow brain thinks short-termThu Mar 04 2021 - 05:00
The Leaving Cert is not fair. Why not just replace it with a lottery?Unthinkable: We can no longer plead ignorance of the inner workings of our State examsThu Feb 25 2021 - 05:00
You’re a large-brained scheming dreamer with a sense of justice: What it means to be humanUnthinkable: Speciesism, which puts humans above nature, may be the last acceptable prejudiceThu Feb 18 2021 - 05:00
Teaching children to respect all opinions can be problematicUnthinkable: A ‘questioning mindset’ is needed rather than an attitude of ‘anything goes’Thu Feb 11 2021 - 05:00
Why Covid dissidents need to be understood, not demonisedUnthinkable: Lack of access to democratic processes can fuel distrust, says Dr Katherine FurmanThu Feb 04 2021 - 05:00
‘We have learned from Covid how much we miss touch’Unthinkable: Philosopher Richard Kearney argues that sight began displacing other senses even before the pandemicThu Jan 28 2021 - 05:30
The left’s lockdown critique: Right on, or dangerous prattle?Unthinkable: Philosopher Giorgio Agamben carries the flame for anti-capitalism through the crisisThu Jan 21 2021 - 05:00
Never mind the Bridgertons, meet England’s first feministUnthinkable: Mary Wollstonecraft’s time in Ireland seemed to influence her world viewThu Jan 14 2021 - 05:00
Is philosophy becoming ‘air guitar to the music of science’?Unthinkable: Philosophers are being lured to ‘a dead end’, says historian of ideas Stephen GaukrogerThu Jan 07 2021 - 05:00
Enough of the ‘hot takes’ already: A philosophical wish for 2021Unthinkable: Spinoza tells us that if you want to be free then get your mind in orderThu Dec 31 2020 - 05:00
Would Jesus approve of Christmas?Unthinkable: ‘Infantilising’ nativity story does Jesus no favours, says philosopher Julian BagginiThu Dec 17 2020 - 12:24
In defence of realism: Idealists excite us but at what cost?Unthinkable: Reinhold Niebuhr, Obama’s favourite philosopher, has an important message for todayThu Dec 10 2020 - 05:00
Hannah Arendt and the meaning of evilUnthinkable: Calling something evil is not a licence to shut down debateThu Dec 03 2020 - 05:00
Micheál Martin wants us to have ‘a meaningful Christmas’ – but what does that mean?Unthinkable: Perhaps existentialism can help us navigate the Taoiseach’s suggestionThu Nov 26 2020 - 05:00
Who is more racist, sexist and biased: You or your computer?Unthinkable: Algorithms embed prejudice with ‘no accountability’, says Abeba BirhaneThu Nov 19 2020 - 05:00
Carrots with minds of their own? The weird theory of panpsychismUnthinkable: A speculative hypothesis about the nature of consciousness has academics riled upThu Nov 12 2020 - 05:00
Who really understands Wittgenstein’s ‘bible’ of modern philosophy?Unthinkable: A short book, the Tractatus has had a big impact, says author David EdmondsThu Nov 05 2020 - 05:00
Five lessons of Stoicism: What I learned from living for a week as a StoicUnthinkable: Stoicism is primarily about throwing off the chains of irrational thoughtThu Oct 29 2020 - 05:00
Why work more than 15 hours a week?Unthinkable: It was good enough for your ancestors, says anthropologist James SuzmanThu Oct 22 2020 - 05:00
Ask yourself before reading: Is this newsworthy?Unthinkable: Philosopher Ian Olasov believes we should focus on things of ‘practical significance’Thu Oct 15 2020 - 05:00
Researched to death? How universities have sidelined teachingUnthinkable: Academia has its priorities backwards, says author Zena HitzThu Oct 08 2020 - 05:00
Has Christianity been good for us? It depends on your history bookUnthinkable: Author Charles Freeman believes we shouldn’t forget the sectarian legacy of Christian churchesThu Oct 01 2020 - 05:00
Cancel culture: can you defend people who say unpopular things?Unthinkable: Rival political philosophers can bring perspective to our current debatesThu Sept 24 2020 - 11:19
The forgotten women in philosophy: time to set the record straightUnthinkable: The Philosopher Queens originated from ‘a disheartening trip to the local bookshop’Thu Sept 17 2020 - 05:00
