menu_open
Joe Humphreys

Joe Humphreys

The Irish Times

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

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

yesterday 6

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

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

16.12.2024 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

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

09.12.2024 10

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 20

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 10

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 10

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 10

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 10

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 20

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 9

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 sit...

23.09.2024 10

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 10

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 10

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 40

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Gary Lineker’s ‘bald patch’ jibe hurt Frank Lampard - luckily, there is one treatment for hair loss

Frank Lampard has won three Premier League titles, a Uefa Champions League and amassed more than 100 caps for his country, but the England footballer...

24.06.2024 30

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Tommy Tiernan is on a mission to revive ‘radical’ Christian Irish philosopher

The priesthood in Ireland is dwindling fast but Tommy Tiernan believes there’s still a market for monks. “It should be an option for young fellas...

17.06.2024 40

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

If you could meet your dead parent again through virtual reality would you?

New technology muscles into your life whether you like it or not – and in future perhaps also into your death. It is not fanciful to imagine in a...

10.06.2024 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

The Irish philosopher who was father of ‘cathedral thinking’

“Trump supporters call for revolution after guilty verdict” ran the news headline as backers of the 45th United States president voiced their...

03.06.2024 30

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Is the idea of a ‘country’ still useful in a world of climate challenges and AI?

When my mother was born in 1938, there were about 70 states in the world. Now there are 193 recognised by the United Nations, with Palestine in the...

27.05.2024 70

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Are we making ourselves anxious, or is the world making us that way?

The best treatment for anxiety is probably something most of us loathe to do: live in the present. “If we could stop caring about our future and...

20.05.2024 50

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Are we over-using terms like ‘far-right’, ‘racist’ and ‘fascist’?

13.05.2024 50

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Should you have children? These five philosophical questions can help you decide

Moralising about procreation used to be the Catholic Church’s thing. But nowadays it is the preserve of anti-immigrant fearmongers and...

06.05.2024 40

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’: How common were such notices in Britain?

Absence of proof is not proof of absence, theologians like to say. What applies to the existence of God also pertains to historical fact. We know...

29.04.2024 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Politics is all about managing the present. What people need is a story of the future

No offence to Fine Gael’s new leader but Simon Harris: The Movie is unlikely to be made. Ryan Gosling’s phone will never ring with the offer to...

22.04.2024 70

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

How to end the culture wars: Stop looking for people to blame

Overwhelmed by the world’s problems? You’re not alone. There is so much structural injustice – inequality, exploitation and prejudice – it’s...

15.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

What exactly do politicians mean by ‘woke’?

A few years ago a satirical online site was created to churn out formulaic expressions of Irish cynicism. It was called “Random TheJournal.ie...

18.03.2024 30

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Navalny’s death shames those of us who merely ‘fornicate and read the papers’

How do you feel about the death of Alexei Navalny? Sad? Of course. Shame? “Definitely. He puts us to shame,” replies Irish-American academic...

11.03.2024 7

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Are you being played by Netflix? Why tech giants do not want us to be nostalgic

Nostalgia is big business. The Netflix series One Day has underlined that point, jumping to the top of TV streaming charts in the past month. The...

04.03.2024 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Would you kill one person to save five? It depends what age you are

A famous thought experiment in philosophy is “the trolley problem”. Imagine you saw a tram about to crash into five people and you could save...

26.02.2024 30

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Empathy is bountiful in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but not for the other side

As dystopian images of the future go, it doesn’t get much better than a bloke interacting with a virtual reality headset while driving a bulletproof...

19.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Love is . . . ‘the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real’

Petrol stations will be abuzz this week with romantics procuring flowers, chocolates and saucy greeting cards after filling up the tank. Whatever this...

12.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Who do you trust to advise you on changes to the Constitution?

You know it’s referendum season because a familiar cry goes up from certain two-legged animals. Like the mating call of the cuckoo, which signals...

06.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Who do you trust to advise you on changes to the Constitution?

You know it’s referendum season because a familiar cry goes up from certain two-legged animals. Like the mating call of the cuckoo, which signals...

05.02.2024 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

How to advise without losing friends and vexing people: Five tips for micromanagers

Giving advice is a delicate balancing act. It’s a thin line between sharing useful information and being plain annoying. I should know, having been...

29.01.2024 30

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Some things can’t be sold, but is Páirc Uí Chaoimh one of them?

First the re-branders came for Lansdowne Road, then they came for Páirc Uí Chaoimh. What next? AAA Funeral Homes Croak It Park? Is nothing sacred,...

22.01.2024 8

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Do you really deserve the great job you have?

The resignation earlier this month of Claudine Gay as Harvard University’s first black president was welcomed with glee by conservatives in the...

15.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Manifesting is the perfect religion for our times. But does it work?

January is a big month for the self-help industry, a business valued at €40 billion by Forbes a couple of years ago and now said to be a multiple of...

08.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Here’s the secret to happiness in 2024, according to a dead Greek philosopher: don’t get noticed

New Year’s resolutions can be hard work. Join a gym? Change jobs? Travel the world? It is exhausting just thinking of the options. To make matters...

01.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

This cage-fighting philosopher has an important message for young men

An Irish philosopher and cage fighter has an important message for young men. No, it’s not Conor McGregor, though The Notorious might fancy himself...

26.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Some criticism of the hate offences Bill has been hysterical - but that doesn’t mean it is a good Bill

It is ironic that a law designed to combat hate speech has attracted so much vitriol. The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate...

18.12.2023 7

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Good news: Your existence may not be entirely pointless after all

It has become a scientific orthodoxy that we live in a pointless universe. Whatever about the prospect of flourishing during our time on Earth, once...

11.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Belief is waning in lot of things: Christianity, the Irish soccer team, journalistic objectivity

Belief has waned in a lot of things in recent years: Christianity, table manners, the Republic of Ireland’s men’s football team. But one type of...

04.12.2023 20

The Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

ee56154725adafae6b40a0a43fc225a5