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

Irvin Yalom’s (b. 1931) The Spinoza Problem: A Novel (Basic Books 2013) intertwines history and philosophy, offering a fresh perspective on two distinct but connected lives. (more...)

Looking for a life-changing summer read? Here are Daily Philosophy’s recommendations for five of the most inspiring books that everyone should know. (more...)

Hell is utterly impossible to put down just because of the sheer force of its language… (more...)

Hánfēizǐ advocated a realist political philosophy and its aim was the establishment of order. The function of the state is to survive – to suppress internal strife and resist external aggression. (more...)

Technology, at least in the way that it is deployed in capitalism contradicts the essential simplicity of the ideal Epicurean life. (more...)

The Turing Test wanted to provide a way to judge whether computers are intelligent, but pretending to be human in a chat is not the same as being intelligent. (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...)

For Heidegger, we let things be what they are. Chōmei, steeped in the Buddhist conception of the interdependence of everything, would concur. (more...)

Peter Singer’s Drowning Child thought experiment: If, on the way to the office, we saw a child drowning in a pond, would we think that we have to save it? (more...)

In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss moral relativism and whether we can say that one society is “better” than another. Is the US better than North Korea? In what way? Is there an objective way to judge the “goodness” of a society? (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...)

In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the ethics of employing violence as a means of politics. Are we ever justified to use violent means in pursuit of political goals? (more...)

For a long time, we have been watching the public discussion on cultural appropriation. Many writers and philosophers, even guests we have interviewed here on Daily Philosophy, have been reluctant to discuss the topic in public. (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...)

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

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) was a celebrated Roman writer, public speaker and philosopher and is today seen (alongside Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius) as one of the three greatest ancient Stoics. (more...)

Thales of Miletus is generally cited as one of the first philosophers, although his contributions extended to many sciences and even to business endeavors. (more...)

One folly is the belief that governing is a skill requiring experts. (more...)

Every so often, a student comes to tell me they’re planning to step away from studying for a while. They want to go out into the world, they say — to gain some real experience. (more...)

Plato presents Socrates' skepticism toward the written word, and the limits of what can be derived through the process of reading, in the Phaedrus. (more...)

An interesting idea and a great table of contents, but the execution is unclear about who the ideal reader is — and will really satisfy nobody. (more...)

Ethical AI is less about building machines with moral status and more about building institutions with moral stamina. (more...)

Feeling pain for pain may be the ethical superpower nature and evolution gave us, but is it useful enough? (more...)