Category: Ethics
A brief history of melancholy
× UnsubscribingThis Email Newsletter Privacy Statement may change from time to time and was last revised 18 May, 2020.By clicking ‘subscribe’ you agree to the following:Access to your personal information We will use the email address you provide to send…
The Sutton Hoo helmet
× You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by submitting a written request to support@aeon.co We may only implement requests with respect to the personal information associated with the particular email address you use…
Learning from international attempts to legislate psychosurgery
So-called psychosurgery, in which psychiatric disorders are treated by neurosurgery, for example, by cutting connections in the brain, may have a somewhat tarnished reputation after the insensitive use of lobotomy in the 20th century to treat anxiety and depression. Nevertheless,…
Gut hack
× Aeon email newsletters are issued by the not-for-profit, registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd (Australian Business Number 80 612 076 614). This Email Newsletter Privacy Statement pertains to the personally identifying information you voluntarily submit in the form of…
Rich witches
At first glance, the relation between the economy and the imaginary magic of the witches seems to be entirely negative. Witches were often accused of attacking livestock. They magically made frost, storm and hail, and thereby caused crop failure. Indeed,…
To the core
‘Yes, of course,’ the architect shrugs off the question as a bad joke, and fills in the missing person form. At the time, he doesn’t catch the subtle muscle twitches around mouth and eyes on the policeman’s face, giving away…
Sabine Hossenfelder: searching for beauty in mathematics
× We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. We have taken reasonable measures to protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. No physical or electronic security system is impenetrable…
Philosophers and other animals
Korsgaard says that, given how we make choices and defend them, ‘we think that our achieving our ends is good from the point of view of others and not merely good-for-us.’ It is, indeed, often visible from their point of…
A small antelope horn
× You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by submitting a written request to support@aeon.co We may only implement requests with respect to the personal information associated with the particular email address you use…
Exiles on Main Street
In many respects, Tamil exile politics exemplify the dangers of what Benedict Anderson called ‘long-distance nationalism’. Traumatised by state persecution and the brutalities of war, an exile community helps sustain a secessionist war, grimly assured that war is necessary while…
Conor and Kobe
× Aeon email newsletters are issued by the not-for-profit, registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd (Australian Business Number 80 612 076 614). This Email Newsletter Privacy Statement pertains to the personally identifying information you voluntarily submit in the form of…
Reading John Gray in war
‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.’Blaise Pascal (1623-62) At the political level, in the face of our history of violence, Gray counsels that we have to abandon the belief in utopias…
The right right thing to do
You must answer for who you are – if not to others, then to yourself But those other approaches succeed in offering guidance by ignoring the moral complexity of being in the grip of an irreducible plurality of goods. This…
How Big Tech betrayed us
× More generally, when visiting the Aeon site you should refer to our site Privacy Policy here.We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. We have taken reasonable measures to protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse…
