We are pleased to share the last article in our Taylor Swift and Philosophy […]

We have reached part three of our Taylor Swift blog series. Our series highlights […]

We are pleased to share the second article in our Taylor Swift blog series. […]

We are pleased to announce the first part of a very special blog series. […]

Decision-makers are sensitive to uncertainty. Prudential regulation in finance is a good example. In […]

Many researchers now agree that animal consciousness is more common than once believed. One […]

Moral Progress used to be one of the core ideas and commitments of the […]

Research into the minds of other animals and particularly invertebrates raises questions about how […]

How individuals and groups are named and designated is inextricably linked to the expected […]

The head of the British army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, recently raised concerns over […]

Many people have a period of dementia before they die. Indeed, dementia has been […]

Mathematical knowledge has puzzled philosophers for millennia. The LSE’s own Imre Lakatos coined the […]

Philosopher Richard Pettigrew (University of Bristol) shares his personal thoughts on changing selves and […]

We are happy to share a very special blog post by Ariana Razavi, winner […]

One of the key arguments in favour of an elected second chamber is that […]

Rational agents can be uncertain about what is objectively valuable. Former CPNSS visitor Luca […]

If an animal is sentient, we have an ethical obligation to consider its welfare. […]

A common complaint from those who are minoritised in certain domains of life, such […]

The world recently lost Daniel Ellsberg, famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971. […]

In our latest blog article Jonathan Birch talks about his life as a researcher […]

Last month, we published the blog article ‘What’s the Point of Protest’ by Jonathan […]

What is the point of protest? What makes a protest successful? Jonathan Parry explains […]

How do social norms influence the effectiveness of public policy, and what are the moral, political and philosophical implications of taking social norms seriously? Elsa Kugelberg looks at the effect of gender norms on health policy.

What does the future hold for analytic and experimental philosophy? Petr Jedlička looks at current research methods and asks where the next generation of philosophers might lead us.

What is neurodiversity, and what does it mean for philosophy? Sam Crutcher explores how “divergent worldviews” shape philosophical insight and discussion.

How we say things can be as important as what we say. In this post, Ella Whiteley explores the “framing effect” and its implications for discussions of sex and gender.

How should policy-makers measure the impact of far-reaching policies? Johanna Thoma looks at some of the issues involved in relying on a single metric.

When advisors warned of “significant concerns” about the Alpha variant, the UK government acted quickly. But suspicions about Alpha’s greater transmissibility were first noted a week earlier. Jonathan Birch suggests that when the stakes are so high, even low confidence in a particular outcome can be enough to justify policy interventions.

How should philosophical writing employ the first-person plural, “we”? Simon Glendinning reflects on his recent work on the philosophy of Europe.

What does the evidence say about the effectiveness of statins and about the balance between effectiveness and possible adverse side-effects? John Worrall – a long-time analyst of evidence in medicine – has recently had personal reason to reconsider these questions.

Should artificial agents’ responses to difficult choices align with our own moral intuitions? Johanna Thoma considers the difficulties involved in programming machines to deal with risk, and how things look different from an aggregate point of view.

How can the philosophy of science help inform our response to COVID-19? Stephan Guttinger looks at the history and philosophy of ribonucleic acid (RNA), a central but often overlooked molecule in the story of the pandemic.

It’s clear that beliefs can be wrong about the way the world is, but can they also be wrong in a moral sense? Lewis Ross looks at the moral status of belief.

Scientific advice cannot be completely neutral or independent, says Jonathan Birch. But records from autumn 2020 suggest that the Cabinet Office leant on SAGE to build in optimistic assumptions about the government’s ability to control the pandemic.

How can we mitigate the risks of future pandemics? Jonathan Birch looks at the role of human behaviour in the emergence of new zoonotic diseases.

Modelling is vital if we are to control COVID-19, but it is not infallible. In this post, Roman Frigg and James Nguyen explain how epidemiological models work and consider the uncertainty inherent in their predictions.

Can the justification for current COVID restrictions be challenged on scientific grounds? Philippe van Basshuysen and Lucie White look at the evidence used by Winsberg et al. in their case against lockdowns.

SAGE uses a set of assumptions called the “reasonable worst-case scenario” in its pandemic […]

What’s really at stake in the mind-body debate? Jonathan Birch looks at some of the explanatory differences in approaches to the metaphysics of consciousness.

Policies that suppress or control COVID-19 prevent illness and save lives, but exact an economic toll. How should we balance lives and livelihoods to determine which policy is best? Richard Bradley, Alex Voorhoeve et al. compare benefit-cost and social welfare approaches to the pandemic.

Do we need to prove that we’re not living in a computer simulation? Jonathan Birch looks at G. E. Moore’s famous argument against scepticism.

How does the role of scientist relate to the role of policy-maker? Philip Thonemann looks at coronavirus science, public policy and the value free ideal.

How can findings in virology help answer ontological questions of process and substance? In the final post in this series, Stephan Guttinger looks at viral life cycles and the role of intrinsic properties.

What happens when a virus crosses species? Stephan Guttinger looks at viral jumps and the origins of pandemics.

It seems natural to picture viruses as individual microscopic entities, but might there be another more accurate way to think about them? In the first of this three-part series, Stephan Guttinger presents the case for a process view of viruses.

What is the influence of community on public health? Katherine Furman considers some of the social aspects of the pandemic.

Immunity testing has been touted as one of the best ways to escape lockdown, but just how accurate will these tests have to be? Richard Bradley and Liam Kofi Bright look at inductive risk and policy-making during the pandemic.

With fake news and disinformation seemingly thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic, J. McKenzie Alexander looks at the epistemology and psychology of fringe beliefs.

Could the universe be deterministic at some levels and indeterministic at others? In the final post in this series, Christian List looks at micro and macro levels of description.

What are the requirements of free will, and how can we show that these requirements are met? In the second post in this series, Christian List proposes an indispensability argument for the existence of free will.

Is there space for free will within a scientific worldview? In the first of this three part series, Christian List looks at free will scepticism and outlines his own compatibalist response.

Christian List looks at majoritarianism, Condorcet’s paradox and the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

How are humans able to act cooperatively and why don’t we see such behaviour in other primates? Jonathan Birch looks at the concept of “joint know-how”.

In the second of this two-part series, Joe Mazor looks at how the news media can achieve the right kind of impartiality.

In the first of this two-part series, Joe Mazor looks at media impartiality, what it is, and when and why it is important.

How much detail is the right amount of detail for a scientific explanation? David Kinney looks at getting things just right.

Should doctors be allowed to prescribe homeopathic treatments on the NHS? John Worrall looks at the scientific and ethical status of homeopathy.

Liam Kofi Bright, currently at Carnegie Mellon University, joins LSE Philosophy in September. We thought we’d celebrate his imminent arrival with some questions.

It is claimed that having fewer children will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but is it that straightforward? Eric Brandstedt looks at some of the complexities of this recommendation.

Our lifestyle choices determine our individual carbon footprints, including the decision whether or not to have children. But should parents should be held responsible for the emissions of future generations?

Whose interests should matter when deciding a nation’s border policy? Campbell Brown takes a moral look at border control.

How should US policy-makers choose a replacement for the Affordable Care Act? Dan Hausman looks at the values and economic complications guiding health care reform.

In the final post in this series, Jonathan Birch considers the development of large-scale human cooperation.

Has the time come for a revival of the “cell state” perspective? In part 4 of this series, Jonathan Birch looks at the evolution of multicellular life.

In the third installment in this series, Jonathan Birch looks at “horizontal transmission” and relatedness in bacteria.

How can we explain the evolution of altruism? In part 2 of this series, Jonathan Birch considers “Hamilton’s Rule”.

In the first installment of this five-part series, Jonathan Birch looks at biological altruism, a key concept from his new book The Philosophy of Social Evolution.

How do you hope to be thought of after you die? In his final post in this series, Luc Bovens looks at attitudes towards the dead.

The science of predicting hurricanes is crucial for disaster management and insurance, but also raises difficult methodological and philosophical questions. In this post, Joe Roussos asks whether hurricane modellers should average the results from different models of hurricane frequency.

Can compulsory formal education be justified on liberal grounds? Christina Easton on J. S. Mill, John Rawls and the famous Wisconsin v. Yoder court case.

In the second part of this series, Luc Bovens looks at a good death and a future without oneself.

In her second post in this series, Anna Mahtani explores the parallels between philosophy of language and decision theory’s treatment of indexicals and vagueness.

In the first in this three-part series, Luc Bovens looks at death, immortality and the worthwhile life.

Decision theorists and philosophers of language have a lot to learn from one another. In this post, Anna Mahtani looks at the use and interpretation of credences and preferences.

Can we give accurate scientific explanations for social phenomena? In this post, CPNSS Research Fellow Alexander Krauss looks at the proposed link between economic inequality and democratic change.

Should we be blamed for the negative consequences of otherwise wholly good acts? Tom Rowe considers the moral risks faced by aid givers.

Campbell Brown is one of the most recent additions to our faculty. We thought we’d welcome him to the Department with some questions.

What does justice demand of individuals in an unjust society? Chris Marshall considers the personal implications of distributive justice.

Most sports ban certain performance-enhancing drugs and penalise those who use them. But is the use of these drugs morally wrong? Heather Dyke looks at the ethics of doping.

Can the concept of “temporal selves” help us understand temptation and restraint? Johanna Thoma on self-negotiation.