Philosophers and their philosophies

Julia Kristeva in contemplative portrait

Julia Kristeva:

Julia Kristeva is a philosopher and psychoanalyst whose work explores language, identity, and the unconscious, introducing influential ideas such as abjection and the semiotic dimension of meaning.

Portrait of Nancy Fraser

Nancy Fraser; Justice, Feminism, and Democratic Participation

Nancy Fraser is a leading political philosopher whose work explores social justice through the lenses of redistribution, recognition, and democratic participation, offering a powerful critique of capitalism, feminism, and identity politics in the modern world.

Derrida's lecture in fragmented words

Jacques Derrida: Meaning on the Move

Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher best known for developing deconstruction, a way of reading texts that exposes hidden assumptions, hierarchies, and instabilities in language. His work reshaped philosophy, literature, law, and cultural theory by showing that meaning is never fixed, but always in motion.

Luce Irigaray lecturing portrait

Luce Irigaray: Rethinking Identity, Language, and the Space Between People

Luce Irigaray is a Belgian-born philosopher and feminist theorist whose work examines how language, culture, and philosophy construct gender. Her writing challenges the idea that the masculine is the default form of human experience, arguing instead for a world where difference between genders is recognised without hierarchy.

Dewi Zephaniah Phillips Portrait

Dewi Zephaniah Phillips: When Meaning Is Found in the Way We Live, Not in What We Prove

Dewi Zephaniah Phillips was a Welsh philosopher whose work focused on religion, ethics, and the nature of meaning. Rejecting both dogmatic faith and militant scepticism, he argued that religious practices must be understood through the lived realities of human life rather than as claims that require scientific defence.

Cressida J. Heyes, identity of self

Cressida J. Heyes: The Self as a Project and a Battleground

Cressida J. Heyes argues that identity is shaped through social forces, personal discipline, and systems of power. Her work on the self, gender, and transformation challenges the idea of identity as something inner and fixed, and instead explores how we are continually trained to become ourselves.

Michel Foucault, French philosopher

Michel Foucault: Power, Knowledge, and the Invisible Forces That Shape Us

Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, exploring how power, knowledge, and social institutions shape human behaviour. His ideas challenge traditional views of authority, truth, and identity, revealing the invisible systems that govern everyday life.

Philippa Foot Virtue, Reason and the Moral Life

Philippa Foot: Virtue, Reason and the Moral Life

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.