The value of uncertainty

In fiction, it grips us. In life, it can unravel us. How can brains hooked on certainty put its opposite to good use?By Mark Miller, Kathryn Nave, George Deane & Andy ClarkRead at Aeon

3h

Acadiana

Americana has never looked as eerie as at the annual Cajun crawfish festival: video art by a Québécois filmmaking trioBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

1d

Philosophy’s systemic racism

It’s not just that Hegel and Rousseau were racists. Racism was baked into the very structure of their dialectical philosophyBy Avram AlpertRead at Aeon

1d

Dani

Raw emotion, hard truths and silence as a daughter calls her mother with an update on her breast-cancer treatmentBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

3d

Vikings in America

Centuries before Columbus, Vikings came to the Western hemisphere. How far into the Americas did they travel?By Valerie HansenRead at Aeon

3d

The physarum experiments

Slime mould seems to be intelligent despite lacking a nervous system. The artist Heather Barnett puts its smarts to the testBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

4d

Sex is real

Yes, there are just two biological sexes. No, this doesn’t mean every living thing is either one or the otherBy Paul GriffithsRead at Aeon

4d

Politics is visceral

In an age thick with anger and fear, we might dream of a purely rational politics but it would be a denial of our humanityBy Manos TsakirisRead at Aeon

1w

Kierkegaard’s horror of doubt

Why Søren Kierkegaard saw doubt – though disorienting and horrifying – as the cornerstone of a sound philosophical practiceBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

2w

Angels in the market

The heart-tug tactics of 1950s ads steered white American women away from activism into domesticity. They’re still thereBy Ellen Wayland-SmithRead at Aeon

2w