Philosopher's Zone

When philosophy turns its attention to music, it's traditionally an exercise in high culture. Questions about the nature and function of music are often explored with reference to an established canon of "serious" music – while pop finds itself relegated to the margins. This week we're getting serious about pop, and exploring the ways that the compositional and sonic structures of pop music reflect the social and political structures of the broader culture.

You don’t have to be stupid to be a conspiracy theorist. Many people who buy into paranoid fantasies about stolen Presidential elections and global Satanic cabals are perfectly sane, well-educated individuals. So why do they fall for these myths? This week we consider the possibility that the attraction is primarily aesthetic, and that the experience is fun. But why the perennial focus on Jews?

These days we’re constantly pushed to be more efficient – at work, of course, but also in our leisure pursuits and even while we sleep. How did we get here? And how can we get back to a state that’s governed by principles other than accumulation and profit? This week, a story of two key figures in the history of modern industrial capitalism: F.W. Taylor, the father of “scientific management” theory, and French thinker Georges Bataille, whose economic philosophy was predicated on the notion of spending rather than saving.

Children can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to the getting of wisdom. But does this mean that children are philosophers? And if the answer is Yes, then what kind of philosophers are they?

When billionaires want to make a positive difference in the world, many of them turn to philanthropy. Which is fine in principle, but this week we're asking if giving away money via huge global philanthropic foundations is really an unalloyed good.

Standard philosophical accounts of language present it as a kind of home – a place that we inhabit, and that shapes our sense of self. But what happens when we're not quite "at home" within a language?

Confusion has reigned at Twitter since Elon Musk took the reins of the company, and one of the most pressing questions has to do with whether or not the social media platform will be reshaped to fit its new CEO's ideal of unfettered free speech. Musk has referred to Twitter as the "digital town square" – but how can the town square also be a private estate, owned by a billionaire? This week we're talking property, ownership... and how it all connects with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

What does it mean to study and teach philosophy in prison? Andy West has been teaching philosophy in prisons since 2015, and his memoir The Life Inside is a fascinating account of this experience - as well as a reflection on inherited trauma and the fact that his father, uncle and brother all spent time behind bars.

Like death, causation is something of a riddle. The death certificate of Queen Elizabeth II has "old age" given as the cause of death - but given that old age is simply an outcome of being alive for a certain period of time, what does it mean to pathologise it in this way, and to list it as a fatal condition? Far from being an exact science, death certification is rife with interpretation and contentious decision-making - and this reflects not only death's enigmatic qualities, but the mysterious nature of causation itself.

Günther Anders is the most interesting and important philosopher you've probably never heard of. An exile from Nazi Germany who landed in America in the late 1930s, Anders was a prescient theorist of media and technology whose insights are remarkably pertinent to today's digital landscape. His major work is a best-seller in Europe and he's one of Germany's most well-regarded intellectuals, yet he's almost unknown in the Anglosphere. Why haven't we heard more about him?