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Joe Humphreys

Joe Humphreys

The Irish Times

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The 80/20 rule of dating is nonsense. So why do so many people believe it?

31.03.2025 7

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

The 80/20 rule of dating is nonsense. So why do so many people believe it?

31.03.2025 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Garron Noone shows it’s hard to find the words to talk about immigration

23.03.2025 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Grind schools remain the great injustice of Ireland’s education system

17.03.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Three things we give up when we turn away from Catholicism

10.03.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

The Enlightenment gave rise to a habit of worshipping ‘great men’, but they never had to worry about dying in childbirth

03.03.2025 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

If you’re distracted all the time, is it possible to love?

24.02.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

JD Vance is right about this: Liberals and conservatives do not love the same way

10.02.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

No one is asking Meta to act as God - just not to pollute the public space with lies

03.02.2025 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Squid Game or Sweden? The choice Ireland faces in new economic era

20.01.2025 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

When it comes to clutter are you more like Michael D Higgins or minimalist Marie Kondo?

13.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Smartphones are an easy scapegoat for a more profound unhappiness

What makes a human life valuable? Greg Epstein, a humanist chaplain at Harvard, recalls discussing this question with a group of students at the...

06.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Lessons in philosophy from Sally Rooney’s latest novel that can help us make sense of the world

This has been a disorienting year. North Korean troops are on European soil, helping to invade an EU applicant country. A convicted fraudster,...

30.12.2024 4

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

‘On the ninth day of Christmas, Nietzsche said with glee: sever links with your family’

It’s Christmas time, and that means the annual debate about whether we can take Jesus out of Yuletide once and for all – and just hand the festival...

23.12.2024 5

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Find your ‘inner mystic’: Is this the answer to modern melancholy?

Looking for something to boost your mood? Exercise has proven effects, generating feel-good chemicals in the brain known as endorphins. Coffee...

16.12.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

This column is not for cynics: In praise of political innocence

General election 2024 has produced one outcome but two contradictory narratives. According to one version of the truth, anyone under 35 has been...

09.12.2024 4

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

‘It’s cool’ isn’t a good reason for scientists to develop harmful technologies

The device on which you may be reading this owes its existence to an experiment roughly 55 years ago. A team of university researchers, with some...

02.12.2024 4

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

A philosophical guide to voting: Three big issues to think about

It’s hard to make a TV ad that is funny while also communicating an important public service message. So well done the Electoral Commission on its...

25.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

We are united by common urges: Freedom. Justice. The need to go to the toilet

This column prides itself on taking you to places where others fear to venture. Today we plumb new depths, literally, as we go down the toilet....

18.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Enoch Burke is someone I’d like to hug

It seems a little perverse to be celebrating International Men’s Day next week. American voters have again rejected a woman candidate for president...

11.11.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Should it bother you if you’re not as rich as your neighbour?

Irish people are cute with their money. Unlike in the United States, it’s not the done thing here to flaunt your wealth – but clearly some...

21.10.2024 3

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Why political debate is so fraught: What’s personal to you is intellectual sport to others

Have you ever gotten yourself into an argument with someone because the issue at stake is just theoretical to you whereas it’s very personal to...

14.10.2024 4

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Some people believe animals should have political representation. But which animals?

Democracy has evolved over the last 300 years to give more people representation in decision-making. Excluded populations — including women,...

07.10.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Why ‘they’re eating the dogs’ was a stroke of political genius by Trump

It has become clear the US presidential election is an unfair contest. This has nothing to do with campaign finances, media bias or judicial...

30.09.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

I enjoy going to Mass occasionally, an embarrassing admission for an atheist

There are few places where you can be in the company of strangers for a while without someone glancing at a smartphone. Fewer still where you can...

23.09.2024 9

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

In time of war, ‘we have a duty to hope, as without hope all is lost’

You rarely hear the term “Judeo-Christian values” these days, but in the decades immediately after the second World War it was widely used as...

16.09.2024 6

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Why is ‘news avoidance’ on the rise? The nocebo effect may be playing a part

Recent surveys indicate a rise in “news avoidance”. The latest Reuters Institute poll found four in 10 people worldwide said they sometimes or...

09.09.2024 5

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

If you’re already planning your next holiday, read this first

The first Monday of September sees people return in their droves to workplaces. For many of us this means just one thing: getting on to airline...

02.09.2024 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys