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...)

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...)

Explore philosophy through its most famous quotes! Today: Philosopher and Theologian Albert Schweitzer on the Reverence for Life. (more...)

Altogether this is the most comprehensive account of how the phrase ‘the meaning of life’ came to attain its current ubiquity that has yet been written. (more...)

Review of Uriah Kriegel (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Consciousness, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020, by Prof. Robert Zaborowski. (more...)

Peter Cave’s “How to Think Like a Philosopher” is a very enjoyable introduction into Western philosophy. Light, conversational, entertaining and intellectually stimulating. (more...)

Today, we are confronted with the need to weigh free speech against other values like inclusivity, respect and tolerance. We look at the arguments of philosopher Ronald Dworkin in defence of free speech. (more...)

People as well as large-scale events, for example, the Durch Tulip Mania or the technology crash in the early 2000s, are sometimes said to be irrational. But what exactly do we mean by that? (more...)

Universal Basic Income, or UBI, implies the regular, universal, unconditional transfer of an equal sum of money to all eligible citizens. (more...)

In her honest and entertaining book “One Hundred Days of Solitude: Losing Myself and Finding Grace on a Zen Retreat,” Zen teacher Jane Dobisz recalls the three months she spent as a young person alone in a hut in the woods, bowing, chanting and meditating. (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...)

The rhetoric or metaphor of refuge from the world has largely disappeared from religious, social and ethical debate. The contrast with the past is striking. (more...)

In the capabilities approach, philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that a human life, in order to reach its highest potential, must include a number of “capabilities” – that is, of actual possibilities that one can realise in one’s life. (more...)

This a systematic survey of the arguments and counterarguments that are most commonly in play when considering the ethical rights and wrong of euthanasia and whether it should be legally permitted. (more...)

Ethical arguments against veganism are examined and refuted. (more...)

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

Here, instead of five people versus one person, the trolley is heading toward N cows and diverting it will kill one person. (more...)

Should we teach philosophy to young people when accounting would be better for them? Is driving a car morally bad? Meet the doctrine of Double Effect. (more...)

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was a German social psychologist and philosopher who had enormous popular success from the 1950s all the way to the end of his life in 1980. We discuss his work and his relation to Marxism and Freud. (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...)

Is there a difference between the way we perceive happiness and life in the West in comparison with “Eastern” cultures? We compare Erich Fromm and Lin Yutang. (more...)

A guide to Plato’s Lysis, the first philosophical work on friendship: its setting, Socrates' conversation with Lysis and Menexenus, the puzzles about like and unlike, the ‘first friend’, the famous ending, and why this short dialogue still matters. (more...)

Who was Michel Foucault, what did he write, and what did he mean by discourse, power/knowledge, discipline, biopower and the care of the self? A guide to his life, major works, key ideas and why he still matters. (more...)

What is existentialism? A beginner’s guide to the movement from Kierkegaard to Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir and Camus – its core ideas, its religious and atheist wings, and the argument that Sartre was never really an existentialist at all. (more...)

Philosophy was once something you did on foot. From Diogenes and Aristotle to Kant and Nietzsche, walking shaped how thinkers thought — and we lost something when it moved indoors. (more...)

What does Judaism teach about love? From the Shema and Leviticus to Maimonides, Hasidism, Buber and Levinas: how Jewish thought understands love of God, of neighbour, of the stranger, and in marriage. (more...)

Who was Mohandas K. Gandhi, what did he believe, and why do his ideas of truth, non-violence, satyagraha and self-rule still matter for how we live and fight for things today? (more...)