A City of Fantasy, mid 19th century

The First Futurists and the World They Built

From Saint-Simon to Silicon Valley, the urge to forecast the future has always masked a struggle over who gets to define it.
An illustrated reconstruction of the dire wolf

“Playing God” with De-Extinction

As tech companies tout successes in bringing back the likes of the long-gone dire wolf, they must grapple with accusations such innovation is immoral. Why isn’t it?
Stained Glass Window in the Nazareth Synagogue in Paris

Introduction to Jewish Studies: A Reading List

The broad, ever-expanding field of Jewish Studies is united by texts, events, and figures that engage an established canon of ideas across disciplines.
A man stands alone at a party

What Did the COVID Pandemic Do to Our Minds?

The pandemic’s transformation of daily lives around the world led to a loss of the bodily feeling of social trust across entire communities at once.
Joshua May

Joshua May and the Search for Philosophical Nuance

In his teaching and his research, philosopher Joshua May reminds us that binary, all-or-nothing arguments often rest on false dichotomies.
The road to Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi

Existentialists in Malawi

Proverbs and popular songs from Malawi examine and express ideas similar to those found in European existentialism.
An illustration of a UFO

Far Out: Why Don’t We Believe in UFOs?

Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?
Pliny the Elder

The Numinous World of Pliny the Elder

As a follower of Stoic philosophy, Pliny used sensory experience to try to understand the divine.
Three angels hosted by Abraham, Ludovico Carracci, c. 1610-1612

Xenophilia: Golden Rule of the Stranger

We may have heard enough about xenophobia, the fear of the stranger. But what of its opposite, the love for a stranger, better known as hospitality?
Fredric Jameson, 2008

Verbatim: Fredric Jameson

Marxist cultural critic Fredric Jameson offered a philosophy of late capitalism that gave us a language for talking about globalization and the end of modernism.