What is romantic friendship? By Sukaina Hirji and Meena Krishnamurthy

Deep and lasting connection comes in many forms: we need a new vocabulary to talk about love.   The 20th-century novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch had a profound love for her closest friend, the philosopher, Philippa Foot. The two women first met when they were students taking classes in philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. They remained friends for… Read More What is romantic friendship? By Sukaina Hirji and Meena Krishnamurthy

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Tae-Yeoun Keum: Why philosophy needs myth

In 1872, at the age of 28, Friedrich Nietzsche announced himself to the world with The Birth of Tragedy, an elegiac account of the alienation of Western culture from its spiritual foundations. According to Nietzsche, the ancient Greeks had once mastered a healthy cultural balance between the ‘Apollonian’ impulse toward rational control and the ‘Dionysian’ desire… Read More Tae-Yeoun Keum: Why philosophy needs myth

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Sergei Savelyev: ‘I was always scared’: inmate who exposed systemic Russian prisoner abuse

The videos from the Russian prison hospital are almost too horrific to describe. In the worst, the victims are tied down while other inmates rape or penetrate them with metal objects, the screams and abuse recorded in bodycam footage that was later used as blackmail. Sergey Savelyev says he spent two of his years as an… Read More Sergei Savelyev: ‘I was always scared’: inmate who exposed systemic Russian prisoner abuse

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Donna Lu: Record number of new gravitational waves offers game-changing window into universe

Astronomers have detected a record number of gravitational waves, in a discovery they say will shed light on the evolution of the universe, and the life and death of stars. An international team of scientists have made 35 new observations of gravitational waves, which brings the total number of detections since 2015 to 90. Gravitational waves… Read More Donna Lu: Record number of new gravitational waves offers game-changing window into universe

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Climate protests go global as activists slam summit as 'failure' / It’s time to shift from the ‘war on terror’ to a war on climate change / Groundtruthed

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets all over the world on Saturday to call on world leaders to do more to tackle the climate crisis during COP26. The global protests came after tens of thousands of young people rallied in Glasgow on Friday to denounce inaction and greenwashing at the global climate summit. Organisers… Read More Climate protests go global as activists slam summit as 'failure' / It’s time to shift from the ‘war on terror’ to a war on climate change / Groundtruthed

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Sonali Ranade: Modi Is on a Civilisational Mission – Please Excuse a Few Grand Lies

NB: A perceptive analysis. The focus on Modi, however, is appropriate only in an immediate sense. It should not detract from the cultivated sense of victimhood and ideologically manipulated ‘History’ that underpins the doctrine of the RSS, the BJP’s parent organisation. The concept of the nation-state as a homeland for a homogenously defined ‘majority’ was… Read More Sonali Ranade: Modi Is on a Civilisational Mission – Please Excuse a Few Grand Lies

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Tom Engelhardt: Welcome to the American Century / Guy Saperstein: Why I’m Leaving America

In February 17, 1941, less than 10 months before the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and the U.S. found itself in a global war, Henry Luce, in an editorial in Life magazine (which he founded along with Time and Fortune), declared the years to come “the American Century.”  He then urged this country’s leaders to “exert upon the world the full impact of… Read More Tom Engelhardt: Welcome to the American Century / Guy Saperstein: Why I’m Leaving America

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Mark Neocleous: Whatever happened to martial law? Detainees and the logic of emergency

‘Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog. Detainee became very agitated’: Guantánamo guard diary entry, 20 December 2002 What is a detainee? The term has been given a new lease of life as a result of the authoritarianism that has… Read More Mark Neocleous: Whatever happened to martial law? Detainees and the logic of emergency

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