Philosophy Archives

Transdisciplinary philosophy: An interview with Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan

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What is Transdisciplinary Philosophy? And what is the paradigm’s intellectual and practical significance for individuals, societal frameworks and the global system? At its most basic level, Transdisciplinary Philosophy is a call for a broader, more inclusive approach to thinking and acting in the world. It is an intellectual approach for addressing complex global challenges by transcending the boundaries of traditional […]

Size matters:The link between social groups and human evolution

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Robin Dunbar discusses his eponymous 'Dunbar's Number', primates to people, and why size matters with social groups and evolution.

Humans are social creatures; we live in family groups, socialise with friends, and work with colleagues. Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar’s ‘social brain hypothesis’ suggests that brain size is directly related to social group size in mammals. The bigger the group, the bigger the brain. In this interview with Research Outreach, we find out how Dunbar developed his theory as well […]

Symbiotic Realism: A Transdisciplinary International Relations theory

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Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan’s transdisciplinary ‘Symbiotic Realism’ framework describes the seven new forces transforming the international system.

Informed by neuroscientific findings about human predispositions and insights from the life sciences, Symbiotic Realism is predicated on the notion that the contemporary landscape of International Relations is shaped by seven novel and interdependent forces: disruptive technological advancements; the changing role, independence, threats, and capacities of non-state actors; the emergence of novel strategic domains; the rise of collective civilisational frontier […]

Pushing boundaries: Peter McLaren on the importance of critical pedagogy inside and outside the classroom

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An interview with Peter McLaren on how critical pedagogy has evolved and where he sees this social movement and philosophy progressing.

Peter McLaren is Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies and Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project at Chapman University in the USA. Regarded as one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy, McLaren re-envisions the philosophy of Freire in the context of contemporary issues, including the struggle of the LGBTQ community, […]

Philosophy and Critical Theory: Shining a light on Saladdin Ahmed’s research

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Saladdin Ahmed is a philosopher and critical theorist. His works focus on the philosophy of resistance, antifascism, totalitarianism, and political space. For the last three years, he has been teaching political theory, international relations, and comparative politics at Union College in Schenectady, New York. During that time, he has published, among other works, a book Totalitarian Space and the Destruction […]

Dear Mr Hume, your circle might actually be a spiral

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Induction is typically understood as a process of deriving principles or laws from particular or individual instances. The Empiricist David Hume argued that such generalisations about the world cannot be justified using deduction (a logic-based method of reasoning), and that induction is in fact worthless, circular reasoning. However, Professor Uwe Saint-Mont of Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences in Germany argues […]

Linking theory with social research: A philosophical and evidence-based approach

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graphic showing a fingerprint, representing formation of character

Throughout his career, Derek Layder, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester, has taken a unique approach to linking theory and social research. He strongly believes that incorporating abstract philosophical ideas alongside more practical everyday issues is essential to generating theory from data and evidence. He illustrates this principle using the ‘Theory of Social Domains’, which explores human […]

Intimate communication through co-creating uniqueness

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Dr John Stewart proposes that people can fulfil the deep human need for connection with others in dialogic conversations. At the heart of this process lies the concept of individual ‘uniqueness’. This can be co-constructed by the partners in dialogic conversation, as each takes turns sharing unique aspects of themselves and helping the uniqueness of the other to emerge. Getting […]

21st century philosophy: An introduction to information ethics

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Artificial intelligence and information technology are part of our everyday lives; from the way we carry out our work, to the ways in which we spend our leisure time or communicate with others. It is becoming increasingly important then that we understand not just the way that this technology works and how it is developed, but also how our individual […]

Mind as Energy

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Dr Pollard-Wright has developed a transdisciplinary theory of mind.

Dr Holly Pollard-Wright, independent researcher and CEO of Wild Ride Wildlife Services, has developed a transdisciplinary theory of mind which draws on principles from classic and quantum physics, ancient philosophies of transforming the mind, and modern principles of behavioural and cognitive science. The mind is viewed as energies of relationships, with no beginning and no end, that give rise to […]