Explore philosophy through its most famous quotes! Today: Immanuel Kant on how to treat human beings. (more...)

Explore philosophy through its most famous quotes. Today: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: “It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul…” (more...)

A history of philosophy in its most famous quotes. Today: Jeremy Bentham on the suffering of animals: “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” (more...)

Joseph Harris (2022). Misanthropy in the Age of Reason: Hating Humanity from Shakespeare to Schiller. Oxford University Press. 304 pages. Hardcover: 73. (more...)

Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa? by Brandon Robshaw, is a very clear, instructive and carefully argued book that shows off philosophy at its best. (more...)

Tartaglia’s sometimes uneven exploration of how philosophy could be popularised is hugely amusing and entertaining at places, but it also has parts that don’t quite live up to its promise. (more...)

A Dialogue between Socrates and ChatGPT on Intelligence. (more...)

Would it matter if the entire human race became extinct? (more...)

In a book published in 2008, R. H. Thaler and C. R. Sunstein define nudges as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way.” (more...)

From the Garden of Eden to urban allotments, gardens have accompanied and enriched human history and culture from ancient times to now. In this article, Ian James Kidd traces the spiritual history of gardens as places of refuge from the world. (more...)

Robert Rodriguez’ “The Book of Hermits” is a work of impressive scholarship, covering the global history and lore of eremitism from antiquity to the present. (more...)

Hermits, from the Greek “eremites,” (=men of the desert), are found in all cultures and at all times. In this article, we look at the phenomenon of hermit life as a whole, before we go into more detail in future posts in this series. (more...)

Did the ancient Greeks really believe all those myths? We find it hard to imagine that people trusted the Oracle of Delphi with important decisions or prayed to such a horny and mischievous god as Zeus! (more...)

Should we legalise recreational drug use? This article explains seven arguments against legalising recreational drugs. (more...)

For Aristotle, the moral development of a person progresses in three stages: from akrates, to enkrates, to sophron or wise person. (more...)

Stock’s latest work will annoy supporters of the UK’s attempts to legalise consensual assisted dying. (more...)

In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the ethics of the death penalty, and particularly the question whether other countries have the right to withhold the drugs used in US executions. (more...)

There is a possible archetype here of the silent, rejected saint, the unthanked helper, the monk in exile. (more...)

September 26: Martin Heidegger’s Birthday (1889-1976) (more...)

April 26, 121 AD marks the birthday of Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, who still inspires us today with his sense of humility and duty. (more...)

John Horton Conway (1937-2020), mathematician, inventor of the “Game of Life” simulation of cellular automata. (more...)

It is no longer only about how we treat others, but about what kind of collective future we are rationally justified in pursuing. (more...)

The photograph captures what the eye measures. Van Gogh captured what the mind feels the sky to be. Whose account of the night is truer? (more...)

In collectivist societies, personal failure is rarely experienced privately. One person’s choices are seen as reflecting upon the entire family. (more...)

The tragedy may be less about desire than we assume, and more about origin, order, and the wrong inner position. (more...)

Humans are the only species that can both cause and contemplate their own extinction. Our enormous technological and philosophical abilities put us in a unique existential situation. (more...)

Instead of pretending that animal rearing is a just endeavour, may we face the real nature of this practice. (more...)