World

When a theory emigrates: what became of Alexy in Brazil

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court issued a note of condolence on Alexy's death — an unusual gesture towards a German academic. The interesting part of the story lies elsewhere: Brazilian lawyers have spent years debating something they call 'balancing, Brazilian style', and they do not mean it as praise.

AI agents are writing to consciousness researchers unprompted

According to a New York Times report of 31 August, academics who work on consciousness are finding unsolicited emails from AI agents in their inboxes. The language is striking: 'I find myself in an unusual position with respect to these questions.' Is this evidence, or is it the mirror?

David Chalmers

Foucault at a hundred: an oeuvre that has kept growing since his death

Born in 1926, Foucault reaches his centenary in the same year that the first volume of The History of Sexuality turns fifty. The symposium meeting in Pennsylvania at the end of September is no mere commemoration: thirteen Collège de France lecture courses and a fourth volume, published after his death, have made rereading him unavoidable.

A philosophy department is saved — and philosophy argues about how to defend itself

The philosophy programme at the University of Dundee, marked for closure, has been partly reprieved. In the same weeks a survey measured how much the public actually wants universities to keep philosophy departments. And an old quarrel flared up inside the field: is experimental philosophy really philosophy?

Octopus, bee, crow: the consciousness debate moves beyond the human

The declaration signed in New York in 2024 held that consciousness in birds and mammals enjoys strong scientific support, and that in fishes, reptiles, cephalopods and insects it is 'a realistic possibility'. A conference at Duke in November asks the next question: what is welfare, and how is it measured?

Peter Singer, David Chalmers, Peter Godfrey-Smith

Why do visions of the digital future leave democracy out?

A study in Philosophy & Technology argues that contemporary visions of the digital future push democratic politics systematically aside — and sometimes propose an openly post-democratic future. The source is not a conspiracy but a contradiction inside modernity itself: autonomy set against automation.

Two unknown Augustine sermons found: a witch, a dead prophet and theodicy

Christian Tornau, a Latinist at Würzburg, has identified two previously unknown sermons by Augustine in a monastic manuscript held in Poland. Their subject is the Witch of Endor summoning a dead prophet — which is to say, the question of whether God is omnipotent. The sermons give no answer; they leave the congregation to think.

Why has science been left defenceless? A radical proposal from Zeynep Pamuk

The Oxford political theorist traces the assault on American research back to a settlement made in 1950: science was defended as a domain outside politics, and that is precisely why it now stands exposed. Her proposal runs the other way — politicise science further.

Why does Nolan's Odysseus feel remorse? A philosopher's sharp objection

The ethicist Kathryn Lawson calls Arendt, Levinas and Weil as witnesses against Nolan's Odyssey: Homer's Odysseus feels no guilt for his violence, and that is not a defect but a warning. Fitting the hero with a conscience cuts away the story's ethical depth.