Philosopher Peter Singer has helped launch a new, pseudonymous journal for the discussion of unpopular views. Will this be a boon for free inquiry, or a way for researchers to shirk responsibility?
- Associate Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University
Every day, the internet fills up with more and more dead people while our ability to reanimate them grows. The dead are more robust and more vulnerable — and we’re not ready for any of this.
One of the hard things about life during a pandemic is the all encompassing lack of certainty. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard can help us make our peace with this situation.
Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 during a pandemic is a surprisingly moving experience. The game is a haunting meditation on time, death, and the persistence of the past.
Casting James Dean in a new movie points to a bigger problem for us all: protecting the digital dead from the living.
I never met John Clarke, who has just died at 68. Yet he taught me a great deal about the English language and the Australasian voice, and what can be done with both.
Amid the uproar over US Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to dine alone with any woman other than his wife, we should ask: what are the metaphysical implications?
On Trump’s inauguration day, alt-right activist Richard Spencer was punched in the street, on camera. The internet’s reaction to this event raises important moral questions around violence and power.
Want to contemplate some big questions this summer but don’t know where to start? Here are some top picks from some of Australia’s top philosophers.
In his first speech to the senate, new One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts compared himself to Socrates. So, would Socrates today be a climate denialist?
Opponents of marriage equality have given the game away with their objection to same-sex adoption of orphaned children in Queensland.
The return of One Nation to parliament threatens to install expertise denialism and conspiracy theory in the heart of Australian democracy.
The “marketplace of ideas” is usually less a showroom for shiny new models and more of a cheery Op Shop. So it’s a big deal when a genuinely new argument is spotted in the wild – even, or perhaps especially…
It can’t be easy being Lyle Shelton. The managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby certainly has a full dance card: holding back the tide against marriage equality, campaigning against anti-discrimination…
Barely a year after Julian Blanc was denied a visa to Australia, the outcry over Daryush Valizadeh’s planned visit and cancelled meetings has once again drawn media attention on the global “Pick Up Artist…
Dear Mr Briggs, We haven’t met. But I’ve been following your ministerial career with some interest, since just before the last election. As you’ll recall you were the then-opposition’s spokesperson on…
Well, it’s that time of year again – and there it is; just four words into an article on Christmas I’ve used the word ‘time.’ Among the hodge-podge of rituals and holidays that survive in the post-Christian…
Do you run wild in Fallout, or vicariously hunt zombies in The Walking Dead? Three philosophers investigate the enduring appeal of the post-apocalypse.
The Unsubtleberg family – mother, father, brother and sister – are driving along a lonely country road, on their way to camping holiday. MOTHER: Wait, what’s that? Stop the car! [They screech to a halt…
One detail you might have missed in the recent uproar over the Australian Border Force’s involvement in “Operation Fortitude” was the ABF’s understanding of what a border is: We consider the border not…
David Leyonhjelm is a conviction politician whose positions are governed by principle, not populism. But he is exposing the disturbing moral thinness of the libertarian principles he espouses.
We’ve just seen another mass shooting in the US. This time it was a church, and race hate was the cause. Other times it’s a school, or a cinema, or a university, or a shopping mall. By now, the script…
Earlier this year, the ethicist Walter-Sinnot Armstrong asked whether philosophers were out of touch with, even contemptuous, of ordinary people and everyday life. The picture he paints isn’t flattering…
By now you’ve likely heard about psychiatrist and columnist Tanveer Ahmed’s recent opinion piece in The Australian in which he effectively blamed radical feminism for domestic violence. Others have explained…
Barring some sort of last-minute miracle, two relatively young Australian men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are going to be killed by the Indonesian state. They will not be the first to die this way…
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