Unthinkable | The Irish Times

James Suzman: ‘My solution is to say, look, recognise we are incredibly adaptable species... We have got to experiment.’

Why work more than 15 hours a week?

Unthinkable: It was good enough for your ancestors, says anthropologist James Suzman

The US president may have lots followers but ‘you get diminishing returns’ on his tweets, philosopher and author Ian Olasov remarks. Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Ask yourself before reading: Is this newsworthy?

Unthinkable: Philosopher Ian Olasov believes we should focus on things of ‘practical significance’

Zena Hitz has particular concerns about the quality of teaching, an issue that goes beyond the coronavirus crisis. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty

Researched to death? How universities have sidelined teaching

Unthinkable: Academia has its priorities backwards, says author Zena Hitz

A view of St Peter’s Square and Basilica at the Vatican. Photograph: AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti

Has Christianity been good for us? It depends on your history book

Unthinkable: Author Charles Freeman believes we shouldn’t forget the sectarian legacy of Christian churches

Anti-racism campaigners taking part in a rally last year outside Google headquarters on Barrow Street in Dublin. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times

Cancel culture: can you defend people who say unpopular things?

Unthinkable: Rival political philosophers can bring perspective to our current debates

Illustrations from The Philosopher Queens: Diotima, Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Warnock and Anita L Allen. Images: Emmy Smith/The Philosopher Queens

The forgotten women in philosophy: time to set the record straight

Unthinkable: The Philosopher Queens originated from ‘a disheartening trip to the local bookshop’

Members of the Khomani San community strike traditional poses in the Southern Kalahari desert in South Africa. Non-western societies put greater emphasis on familial relationships and inherited social roles rather than personal achievement. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Are you Weird? Answer this question to find out

Unthinkable: ‘Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic’ mindset is relatively new to society

US president Donald Trump pictured playing golf this summer. Men ‘feel entitled to far more by way of leisure’, says philosopher and author Kate Manne. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

How do you stop male entitlement?

Unthinkable: Kate Manne’s study of gender inequality makes uncomfortable reading but has a hopeful message

Philosopher Mary Midgley, as illustrated for the Notes from a Biscuit Tin project

What are words worth: do poets and philosophers speak the same language?

Unthinkable: Research project and poetry prize explore overlap between perceived rival disciplines

The word according to Father Ted. ‘Humour is a large part of Irish life so a truly Irish church should be conversant with such humour and able to laugh at itself,’ says Christian pastor Fraser Hosford.

Does religion deserve to be treated as a joke?

Unthinkable: Some ridicule may help the Irish church to recover, says pastor Fraser Hosford

Philosopher Édouard Glissant defended one’s right ‘to be opaque’, or to lack transparency and avoid categorisation by oppressors. Photograph: Jean-Marc Zaorski/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Why does philosophy have a problem with race?

Unthinkable: Racist views must be confronted honestly, says philosopher Aislinn O’Donnell

$Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald. Voters for her party are ‘entitled to a fair hearing. But no one is entitled to fractional legislative victories’, says political scientist Arthur Isak Applbaum. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins$ How do you identify a legitimate government?

Unthinkable: A government’s character is more important than its composition, author Arthur Applbaum says

Now in their third year, the Irish Young Philosopher Awards took place online due to the pandemic, focusing specifically on moral themes relating to Covid-19

Left floundering by the jet ski minds of a younger generation

Unthinkable: Philosophy's future is in safe hands judging by the Young Philosopher Awards

George Berkeley. Aside from supporting slavery, ‘in his later political work, he is pretty grim on the Irish peasantry too’, says TCD researcher Clare Moriarty. Image: Hulton Archive

What to do about George Berkeley, Trinity figurehead and slave owner?

Unthinkable: Ireland’s most celebrated philosopher was ‘also extremely morally fallible’

A grounding in mathematics was necessary to join Plato’s Academy.

Does philosophy belong to the academy or the community?

Unthinkable: Plato need not intimidate – if you’ve got a good philosophical facilitator

The notion of Gaia, or ‘Mother Earth’, taking steps to preserve nature’s equilibrium, is not so fanciful, says Greek scholar John Dillon. Photograph: Getty Images

God, make way for Gaia: A deity even atheists can believe in

Unthinkable: Is nature’s mother god sending us a message with Covid-19?

‘There’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult,’ US Democratic Party politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said.

Is it okay to have children in a time of climate chaos?

Unthinkable: Conceivable Future is fostering a personal but ‘deeply political’ debate

Existentialist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre enjoy the freedom of the beach in Rio in 1960. Photograph: STF/AFP/Getty

Ten philosophers to help us through the coronavirus crisis

Unthinkable: Sartre and Schopenhauer make the list but Peig Sayers deserves inclusion too

‘The wonder even of small, local and daily life – a blackbird’s song, a friend’s greeting, a hot meal – these things can be an antidote to despair,’ says environmentalist and author Patrick Curry. Photograph: Getty Images

Is Covid-19 lockdown our chance to regain a sense of wonder?

Unthinkable: Tech companies feed us glamour that ‘provokes false enchantment’, says environmentalist Patrick Curry

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and party TD David Cullinane. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Is ‘Up the Ra’ a man thing?

Unthinkable: The ‘masculine’ character of Irish republicanism still influences today, says philosopher Dianna Taylor

A man walking past graffiti in London. There has been a spate of attacks on the 5G network linked to erroneous claims that it is responsible for the spread of coronavirus. Photograph: EPA/Neill Hall

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

Unthinkable: A study suggests social exclusion or loss of power may be a factor

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