Aeon Magazine
@aeonmag
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Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. Psyche is our sister magazine focused on the human condition. Visit https://t.co/rFyQHxITEB and https://t.co/IZy9ul8HgS for more.
Joined February 2012
Benjamin Lay was a radical Quaker, an ex-sailor, and an unlikely pioneer of the world’s first modern social movement: abolitionism. Last week’s most read:
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Economists use mathematical models to masquerade as a science. The discipline has become more like astrology:
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In 1971, Foucault met Chomsky in the Netherlands for their first and only debate. Watch the provocative Foucault spar with the professorial Chomsky. From the Aeon Video archive:
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If discretion is no longer a design priority, then hearing aids could become as fashionable as eyewear
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In 1971, Foucault met Chomsky in the Netherlands for their first and only debate. Watch the provocative Foucault spar with the professorial Chomsky. Aeon Video:
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Today we launch Psyche, a sister site to Aeon exploring mental health, the question of ‘how to live’, and artistic and transcendent experience. It’s a big milestone for us! We hope you enjoy it
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I went to a child psychoanalyst four times a week for three years. Reading her account of our time together years later, I am struck by how much she hated me @_MichaelBacon
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The first words to pass between Europeans and Americans were in the sacred language of Islam. The name ‘California’ might even have some Arabic lineage. How Muslims have been written out of early American history. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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Hannah Arendt enjoyed her solitude, but she believed that loneliness could make people susceptible to totalitarianism @Samantharhill.
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‘You are a way for the Universe to be in awe of itself.’ A Carl Sagan for our times, the theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack’s video essay finds lyricism in black holes and the sands of Mars. Aeon Video: @AstroKatie @NCStateSciences
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This expedition explored never-before-seen ocean canyons and coral reefs deep in the sea off Western Australia. On Aeon Video:
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For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act @Samantharhill.
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By fetishising mathematical models, economists turned economics into a highly paid pseudoscience. From the archive:
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Relativity says we live in four dimensions. String theory says it’s 10. What are ‘dimensions’ and how do they affect reality? @margaretwerth
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Can a machine pray? Does an AI have a soul? Why the fact that artificial intelligence will radically alter theology is of significance to us all
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Natural human stupidity is a greater risk than artificial intelligence:
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Why do we listen to our favourite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains
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The words ‘all men are equal’ were written decades before Locke put pen to paper, by an Ethiopian philosopher, Zera Yacob
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Today is Aeon’s 8th birthday. Thank you to our readers, our authors and our donors for your support!.
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A Classical education was never just for the elite, but was a precious and inspiring part of working-class British life @edithmayhall.
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Academic philosophy in ‘the West’ ignores and disdains thought traditions of China, India, Africa. This must change
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A Zen student asked how long it would take to gain enlightenment if he joined the temple. ‘Ten years,’ said the Zen master. ‘Well, how about if I work really hard and double my effort?’. ‘Twenty years.’.
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Theoretical physicists who say the multiverse exists set a dangerous precedent: science based on zero empirical evidence @JimBaggott.
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Mindfulness has disturbing implications for how we relate to our thoughts, emotions and very sense of self. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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We’re thrilled to announce that Aeon’s sister site, Psyche, is now live. With a focus on mental health, the question of ‘how to live’, and artistic and transcendent experience, we hope you’ll find Psyche a rich place to explore and learn
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Too many depictions of autistic people rely on tired clichés. The neurotypical world needs to take note of our own voices @_katherine_may_
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In a world of total work, life is a list of endless tasks. The worker is gripped by anxiety, a sense of missed opportunity, and guilt for feeling lazy
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For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act. Editor’s pick:
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Want to build a just society? John Rawls said to start by ignoring your identity. From the Aeon Video archive:
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Resilient people are able to shift from one coping strategy to another, depending upon the circumstances – and humour can enable that essential flexibility
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Ethics cannot be based on human nature because, as evolutionary biology tells us, there is no such thing. Last week’s most read essay:
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The idea that immersing yourself in forests and nature has a healing effect is far more than just folk wisdom. From the archive:
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Amartya Sen is the century’s first great critic of capitalism: he saw most clearly how economics could be reintegrated into frameworks of moral relationship
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For Aristotle, education is lifelong: it is not until age 50 that theoretical knowledge is finally balanced with practical wisdom
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Ambedkar was not only a politician, but a profound thinker whose philosophy of democracy challenged the caste system @scottrstroud
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‘Plantation slavery had made the planters rich, but it left the South poor.’ On capitalism and (under)development in the American South.
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The philosophical themes central to Gandhi – non-violence and freedom – are full of surprises. His thinking is never conventional
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Philosophy, medicine and psychology are overcoming Cartesianism: studies of embodied emotions and the emotive self are putting our whole organism back together again
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Believing without evidence is always morally wrong. Editors’ pick:
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You don’t need drugs or church for an ecstasy that helps transcend the self and connect to something bigger
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The idea that millions of sperm are on an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction @DrRDMartin
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While Plato and Aristotle were concerned with character-centred virtue ethics, the Aztec approach is better described as socially-centred virtue ethics – you realise your ethics with and through other people. Last week’s most read:
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Children learn best when their bodies are engaged in the living world. We must resist the ideology of screen-based learning
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For the first time Aeon Essays are available for syndication in English, online:
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The year 1945 is seen in the Nordic countries as ‘the golden year for children’s literature’ – with Pippi and the Moomins reminding us that however bad things get, it is always possible to imagine the world anew
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For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act. Last week's most read:
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Elephants may have all the cognitive and emotional capacities it takes to be considered ‘persons’, not in the sense that they are Homo sapiens, but in a philosophical sense
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For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act. For more on this, book tickets to the Sophia Club, where @lyndseystonebri will be exploring the meaning of violence according to Arendt
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For the past 7 years Aeon has made expert knowledge freely available and accessible. From the 18 May, Psyche will continue this project by diving deep into psychology, practical philosophy and the arts
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Rich philosophical traditions of China, India, Africa, Indigenous peoples are ignored by ‘Western’ departments. Why?
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Rituals work – even if you don’t believe in them. Research shows that habitual practices reduce anxiety, alleviate grief and aid self-control
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Virtue is a cooperative, not an individual endeavor. If the Aztecs are right, Western philosophy has been too centred on the individual's character – we become better together:
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Hannah Arendt enjoyed her solitude, but she believed that loneliness could make people susceptible to totalitarianism. Last week’s most read:
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The idea of a ‘precolonial’ Africa is theoretically vacuous, racist and plain wrong about the continent’s actual history. This year’s best reads
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This animated adaptation of the poem ‘The Mushroom Hunters’ by Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) is a celebration of culture, scientific discoveries and great scientists. On Aeon Video:
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Pippi and the Moomins served as a social antidote to fascism. Last week’s most read:
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Relativity says we live in four dimensions. String theory says it’s 10. What are ‘dimensions’ and how do they affect reality?
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The hallmark of grief is not just sadness, it’s disorientation. The fog of grief is as common as grief itself
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In 1971, Foucault met Chomsky in the Netherlands for their first and only debate. Watch the provocative Foucault spar with the professorial Chomsky. From the Aeon Video archive:
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Can we be held morally responsible for our actions? Yes, says Daniel Dennett. No, says Gregg Caruso. Reader, you decide. From the archive:
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When Chomsky met Foucault: how the thinkers debated the ‘ideal society’. Last week’s most watched on Aeon Video:
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Children learn best when their bodies are engaged in the living world. We must resist the ideology of screen-based learning
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While Plato and Aristotle were concerned with character-centred virtue ethics, the Aztec approach is better described as socially-centred virtue ethics – you realize your ethics with and through other people.
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It’s a little known fact that the great logician Kurt Gödel believed wholeheartedly in the afterlife. Why? He set out his views in four letters written in unadorned language to his mother
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Was Spinoza right in thinking that in causing changes in nature, our actions are nature changing itself?
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Linguistic relativity holds that your worldview is structured by the language you speak. Does each language really embody a different worldview? History shines a light
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To know ourselves, we must first know the Neanderthals. From the archive:
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This is how Europe became the richest place on earth: by being politically fragmented, yet intellectually united
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Simone de Beauvoir believed that praise is bait that keeps women sacrificing themselves without getting anything in return. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller explains how every atom in the human body can be traced back to a star’s life cycle
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He developed theories of mathematical logic before Frege, semiotics before Saussure, pragmatism before William James, phenomenology better than Husserl, and universal grammar before Chomsky. Why don’t more people know about Charles S Peirce? Editor’s pick:
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Wolves develop dialects and can riff like jazz musicians. By listening to the wolf's call, we can learn about our own language. From the archive:
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Original, painstaking, sometimes frustrating and often dazzling. Foucault’s work on power matters now more than ever. Editors’ pick 2017:
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David Hume was suspicious of ‘enthusiasts’ – people who think themselves sufficient in reason and knowledge to be entirely confident about their beliefs. Today, the enthusiasts are on the rise:
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Max Weber’s work is sometimes taught today as an elementary introduction to sociology, but what did he mean by the ‘spirit’ of capitalism and the ‘iron cage’ of modern life?
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Why sexual desire is objectifying, and hence morally wrong.
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Human life has a fixed (if unknown) time limit: not only would immortality make us miserable, but we would cease to be distinctively human in the way that we currently are. Last week’s most read:
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For Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, parties were an expression of a philosophy of seizing life, and there were authentic and inauthentic ways to do this. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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Cellphones are the go-to solution for the desire to be perpetually occupied. Can people no longer bear to be with their own thoughts?
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The mental load, the double burden, the third shift: back in 1949, Simone de Beauvoir questioned why a woman must provide peace and rest for everyone but herself. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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Elon Musk argues that we must put a million people on Mars if humanity is to have a future. Our #1 piece of 2014: http://t.co/iE15Dufal9.
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A partner’s touch, combined with high levels of empathy, can have an analgesic effect:
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Our imaginative life today has access to the pre-linguistic, ancestral mind: rich in imagery, emotions and associations. From the archive:
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Knowledge is often a matter of discovery. But when the nature of an enquiry itself is at question, it is an act of creation @celinehenne
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Depression is more than low mood – it’s a change of consciousness by @cecilymwhiteley and Jonathan Birch.
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Life is not determined by genes. On the contrary, genes can only be understood in the context of the complex feedback loops in which they participate
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Neuroscience suggests that believing success comes from merit makes people more selfish, less self-critical and more prone to acting in discriminatory ways. Readers’ favourites 2019:
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Beyond reason: the mathematical equation for unconditional love. Editors’ pick
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Even when it seems that you will drown in grief, or be overwhelmed by the injustice of your loss, Marcus Aurelius reminds us that you still have a choice: to understand your story as one of crippling defeat or of miraculous victory against the odds
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A Portuguese man-of-war is not an individual, it is a colony of organisms working together, known as a siphonophore
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The Stoic idea that we are all part of the same global polis, that we are ‘citizens of the world’, is worth remembering today
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Phenomenal consciousness is a fiction written by our brains to help us track the impact that the world makes on us
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Humans have been altering Earth for millennia, but now we are wise to what we’re doing. How will we use that wisdom?
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When employees are treated as short-term assets, they reinvent themselves as marketable goods, always ready to quit:
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Science has outgrown the human mind and its limited capacities
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Is religion a universal in human culture or an academic invention?
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Let’s get medieval, and learn from the great tools for concentration practised by the nuns and monks of the Middle Ages. Readers’ favourites of 2019:
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