Institute of Art and Ideas

“What does it mean to be, in what way does anything at all come to mean anything for us?” | iai.tv/articles/hegel… Tap to read as Robert Pippin explores the philosophies of Hegel and Heidegger to question if philosophy can ever recover the world as something meaningful for…

Can ‘nothing’ ever really exist? | iai.tv/video/the-limi… From ancient Greece to modern science, the idea of ‘nothing’ has refused to disappear. Philosopher Peter van Inwagen shows how even talking about nothing reveals deep contradictions - and why this elusive concept…

Are we really in control of our lives? | iai.tv/video/destiny-… Join Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert, and Keir Mlburn for a debate on the social, historical, structural, and psychological forces that shape us and our fates.

Did Thomas Mann predict liberalism’s crisis? Three decades ago, Francis Fukuyama announced “the end of history,” declaring Western liberal democracy the final form of human government. In 'The Magic Mountain', Thomas Mann captured the ideological battles now resurfacing in our…

Should we abandon anonymity entirely as a threat to social order and a vehicle for criminality? Alternatively, is privacy essential to being fully human and a core legal right that should be applied to everyone, including the rich, famous and the powerful. Stay tuned as we…

In our everyday lives we act as though we are all separate individuals, but is this really the case? Jessica Frazer argues reality is ultimately unified, and this philosophy can change the way we view the world. It can help you lose your isolated ego and escape feelings of…

Is nature versus nurture a false debate? Philosopher of biology Subrena Smith argues it is. We cannot understand any organism in isolation from its environment. In this exclusive studio interview, Smith takes on evolutionary psychology – the dominant lens for explaining human…

Why have we seen a right-wing blending of philosophies, from immigration concerns to Catholicism? | iai.tv/video/the-rise… Join leading journalist @DAaronovitch as he explains the rise and future of the New Right.

We screen. We worry. We don’t live longer. After analysing 30 years of data, top physician H. Gilbert Welch was surprised by the results: cancer screenings didn’t help people live longer. Not even a little. In part two of this series, Welch argues that instead of saving lives,…

Every time the modern world feels like it's hit rock bottom, we drop further. For many, our political climate proves that the world as we knew it is gone. But for Slavoj Žižek rock bottom can be a place to retreat, rethink and regroup. Join Slavoj Žižek, who argues that the…

“Attentive use of the imagination is, unlike fantasy, not a way to escape the world into a daydream but the route by which we become positive agents within the world,” argues @miles_leeson. | iai.tv/articles/imagi… Tap to read more about Leeson’s exploration of Iris Murdoch’s…

The Western intellectual tradition has pursued a single, seductive dream: that the truth is waiting to be discovered. But what if this quest has led humanity into great danger? Manuel Delaflor challenges the Enlightenment ideal of objective truth, arguing that our models don’t…

“Vance vs. the Pope represents the debate between agent-relative moral theories and agent-neutral ones, there is no theoretical solution.” | iai.tv/articles/jd-va… Professor Steven Hales argues that appeals to moral truth are attempts to steer us toward one of our competing…

We need to know whether drugs and other healthcare treatments work. | iai.tv/articles/medic… Tap to read as Trisha Greenhalgh argues that evidence-based medicine must incorporate real-life observations alongside trial data to give patients answers.

Religious claims are not defective scientific claims; they are entirely distinct ways of seeing the world. | iai.tv/articles/wittg… Professor John Cottingham draws on Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language to argue that any understanding and evaluation of religious discourse…

Did a dark big bang create most of the universe? | iai.tv/articles/kathe… Katherine Freese (@ktfreese) and Martin Winkler argue in this article that dark matter and energy have a mysterious origin of their own, outside of the big bang.

For too long the female body has been limited by the patriarchal notion of femininity; and impossible ideal. | iai.tv/video/in-defen… Clare Chambers calls for a radical new framework to help view our bodies as canvases for joyful expression.

Tap to come behind the scenes with @PeterSinger, ‘The Dangerous Philosopher’: iai.tv/video/the-life… Uncover key events in Singer’s life that led to his ideas, hear him answer critics and defend his convictions.

“The challenge is bigger than breaking away from how 'our side' thinks - it’s about breaking out of the framework of partisan ideas entirely.” | iai.tv/articles/how-t… Tap to read @RobertTalisse explain how we can break free from political groupthink.

The blame for just about every major political crisis we live within is placed at the feet of neoliberalism. But, is neoliberalism really to blame? | iai.tv/articles/obama… @jasonfurman, Obama's chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, argues that it was Biden's break with…