Check out the latest from the Agora, “Why is it so difficult to face grim realities?” by Quassim Cassam.

Taking painful truths to heart often requires imagining the unimaginable. – Quassim Cassam [Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

Quassim Cassam is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Conspiracy Theories and Vices of the Mind: from the Intellectual to the Political.

This article is part of the Agora series, a collaboration between the New Statesman and Aaron James Wendland. Wendland is Vision Fellow in Public Philosophy at King’s College, London and a Senior Research Fellow at Massey College, Toronto. He tweets @aj_wendland.