Zhuangzi was the gadfly of ancient Chinese philosophy. His paradoxical writings encourage a stance of therapeutic scepticism towards the world.

There are several theories as to why we haven’t found extraterrestrial intelligence. A team at NASA has turned its attention to a worrying one.

Everyone can think of at least one belief system which is detrimental to human welfare. What I mean by "detrimental" in this context is that it leads to unnecessary pain and suffering. This does not mean it could not still have some positive attributes. But whatever positives might apply cannot make up for the harm caused.

Consciousness is a bit like poop. It's a mysterious internal process, and if you talk about it at parties you'll stop getting invited to parties.

Perhaps you've seen the word "longtermism" in your social media feed. Or you've stumbled upon the New Yorker profile of William MacAskill, the public face of longtermism. Or read MacAskill's recent opinion essay in the New York Times. Or seen the cover story in TIME magazine: "How to Do More Good." Or noticed that Elon Musk retweeted a link to MacAskill's new book, "What We Owe the Future," with the comment, "Worth reading. This is a close match for my philosophy."

Using biology to explain mental health disorders is alluring but risky. It isn’t that biology lacks usefulness in understanding the mind. It also isn’t that the mind is free from biological control or influence. In reality, everything is biological, including your thoughts, your speech, the way your speech impacts my brain activity.

Is there a reality outside of our perception? If we cannot see, hear, feel, or otherwise perceive something, does it really exist? Solipsism is the philosophical idea that we can only ever be certain of the existence of our own mind. The world and other people outside of it may only exist as electrical stimuli in our brain. Constructs we build ourselves. Concepts to which we attach meaning. Information we process, interpret and use to survive. An objective reality may not even exist.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology suggests that appealing to the moral elements of Buddhist teachings might encourage more people to donate blood. The researchers found that people with stronger Buddhist beliefs were more likely to say they would donate blood, and this was partly explained by increased moral attentiveness.

This weekend, hundreds of people from across the globe will gather in Madrid to discuss how to turn themselves into a new species. The occasion is TransVision, the world’s biggest annual meet-up of transhumanists — and probably the most important intellectual summit you’ve never heard of. This year, anti-ageing specialist Aubrey de Grey will explain why he thinks most people alive today have a 50/50 chance of living to a thousand years old.

Writing about Aleister Crowley is a big responsibility. In a world that indoctrinates people into seeing the reality through a lens of duality (God or the Devil, Heaven or Hell, right or wrong), to understand Crowley and his importance to the mysticism requires us to go pass this dual vision, as he did in his life and development of his work.

Transhumanism is a philosophy that covers a wide range of different philosophical areas. In short, transhumanism engages with the necessity of overcoming humanity’s limitations and/or enhancing its abilities.

Born into slavery, then crippled by his master and exiled by the Emperor Domitian, Epictetus (c.60-135 CE) has become arguably the central figure in today’s global revival of Stoicism. A straight-talking advocate of the idea philosophy should help people flourish even in hard times, Epictetus has much to offer as we wrestle with pandemic lockdowns and uncertainty. Here are four tips from perhaps the most stoic of the Stoics:

Philosophy of mind has been crippled, since its very beginnings, by two main prejudices. First, the blind implementation of the traditional Western logical framework, that boils down to Aristotelian logic; second, the perennial neglect of crucially relevant empirical data, in so far as, in most arguments, sense-perception is reduced to sight alone.

An alternative moral outlook to utilitarianism, would be a better starting point during the pandemic. One that doesn’t lead us to treating others as means towards a greater good, argues Amna Whiston.

In moral philosophy and mass culture alike, “nihilism” has a bad name. And little wonder. It is most often associated with meaninglessness, pessimism, and amoralism. At its heart, nihilism is a view of the world in which progress is not assured, a world without overarching meaning. Does that present a problem to the moral life?

Everyone from Silicon Valley billionaires to self-help enthusiasts is repurposing Stoicism for our modern age, with results that are good, bad, and highly indifferent.

Rediscovered papers thought to record the memories of a longstanding friend say the ‘father of liberalism’ plagiarised and lied about never reading Thomas Hobbes

We’ve faced bad tidings for over a year now. But, viewing the news makes us feels awful; ignoring it doesn’t feel right either. Recently, Psychologist Terri Apter wrote about the “phenomenon in human behavior.” She describes how catastrophic events reduce procrastination and lazy thinking.

We spoke to philosophers Philip Goff and Keith Frankish about their popular new online show, Mind Chat, in which they interview scientists and philosophers on the mystery of consciousness.