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Philosophy

How four women defended ethical thought from the legacy of positivism.

Alice Crary

Tinder and OkCupid should drop the gender binary. Doing so would help all users—queer and straight alike.

M. Andler
Rosie Gillies
New translations of Wittgenstein, Bachmann, and more in today's reading list.

On the first English translation of Wittgenstein's early private notebooks.

Kieran Setiya

On the first English translation of the Austrian poet’s critical writings, composed in the shadow of fascism.

Peter Filkins
Rosie Gillies
—and what it still has to offer. A reading list on equality, Rawls, and the struggle for a more just world.
A cancer diagnosis reveals how pervasive consumerism has become, infecting even the stuff meant to heal us.
Wendy A. Woloson
Amidst growing suspicion that equality talk is cheap, a new book explains where egalitarianism went wrong—and what it still has to offer.
Teresa M. Bejan

Against the philosopher’s dying wish, the final volume of History of Sexuality has now been published. How should we approach it?

Mark D. Jordan
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven reminds us of the radical power of collective imagination.
Annie Howard
Racial redress should be modeled on the global anticolonial tradition of worldbuilding.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
An anthropologist reflects on West African divination as a case study in hope during times of great uncertainty.
Michael Jackson

The Judge Rotenberg Center, a Massachusetts school, still uses electric shock therapy to punish disabled students. How can an entire field of mental health accept this as fine?

John Summers

A recording of a virtual roundtable to honor the life and work of Charles W. Mills.

Boston Review Events

On language and belonging.

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay

How philosophical thinking can make truthfulness possible even when the truth can barely be fathomed.

Oded Na’aman

Nearly two years into a global pandemic, uncertainty has profoundly unsettled both our personal and political lives. In our Fall 2021 book, eleven thinkers consider its scientific, philosophical, and economic aspects.

On feminism, sex, and the ethics of desire.

Becca Rothfeld

Knowing takes radical collaboration: an openness to being persuaded as much as an eagerness to persuade.

Agnes Callard

His milieu was one of global, and specifically Palestinian, anticolonial struggle.

Esmat Elhalaby
Two theories paint very different pictures of the sources of our democratic dysfunction. The debate won’t be settled by accusations of political convenience.
C. Thi Nguyen
Rosie Gillies
Biden. Student Loans. Incarcerated People. And more in today’s reading list.

The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.

Carissa Véliz

On the fate of Karl Popper’s idea of falsification.

Michael D. Gordin

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Popular Authors

Essayist and Washington Post nonfiction book critic

Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale, specialist in social and political philosophy

Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and author of Elite Capture

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