Level 2 – Basic Concepts: At this level, you’ll explore fundamental philosophical concepts and theories. It’s designed for those with some understanding of philosophy, explaining ideas in a straightforward way, with examples to illustrate key points.
Isaac Asimov reshaped modern science fiction with his Robot stories, the Foundation saga, and hundreds of popular-science works that made complex ideas accessible. His optimistic philosophy, rational clarity, and iconic concepts like the Three Laws of Robotics continue to influence AI ethics, literature, and our understanding of the future. Discover Asimov’s life, ideas, and legacy.
Discover George Orwell’s philosophical insights beyond Animal Farm and 1984, focusing on his critiques of imperialism and colonialism, emphasizing truth, freedom, and humanity.
Philippa Foot was a leading twentieth-century philosopher who revived virtue ethics and challenged prevailing views about moral judgement. Best known for the trolley problem and her theory of “natural goodness,” she argued that virtues are grounded in human nature and essential to human flourishing. Her work continues to shape contemporary debates in ethics, character, and moral psychology.
Mary Midgley was a pioneering British philosopher who challenged reductionism, defended the importance of ethical and ecological understanding, and argued that human life requires multiple forms of explanation beyond science alone. Her work on animals, moral imagination and intellectual humility remains deeply relevant today.
Iris Murdoch was a novelist and philosopher who explored morality through the inner life, emphasising attention, imagination and the struggle against ego. Her work unites fiction and ethics, revealing how we become good not through sudden decisions but through how we see others and the world.
Elizabeth Anscombe, one of the most influential analytic philosophers of the twentieth century, transformed modern ethics and action theory through her work on intention, virtue, and moral reasoning. Drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas while engaging the legacy of Wittgenstein, she challenged the foundations of modern moral philosophy and helped revive virtue ethics as a central philosophical approach.
Simone Weil was a French philosopher, mystic, and social activist whose life embodied radical intellectual and moral commitment. Known for her powerful reflections on suffering, attention, labour, and the need for spiritual humility, she remains one of the most compelling and challenging thinkers of the twentieth century. This article explores Weil’s life, key ideas, and enduring influence.
María Zambrano was a Spanish philosopher whose poetic approach to reason reshaped modern thought. Exploring exile, democracy, the inner self, and the divine, she blended philosophy and literature to reveal deeper ways of understanding human experience.
Susanne K. Langer was a pioneering American philosopher who transformed the study of art and meaning by arguing that humans think not only in words and logic but through symbol, feeling, and form. Her idea that art is a genuine mode of knowledge—expressing patterns of experience beyond language—shaped aesthetics, semiotics, and cognitive philosophy. Langer’s distinction between discursive and presentational symbols continues to influence debates on consciousness, creativity, and the nature of understanding, especially in the age of AI and immersive media.
Sally Haslanger is a leading contemporary philosopher whose work on social construction, identity, and power reshapes how we understand gender, race, and social reality. Combining analytic precision with a commitment to social justice, she offers a rigorous framework for analysing, and improving, the structures that shape human life.