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: Socrates on knowing that you know nothing. (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...)

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...)

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

A new TV show fronted by Jimmy Carr will destroy artworks from artists ranging from Picasso to Hitler. Is this a bad thing? We look at the arguments for and against destroying art for entertainment. (more...)

There have been increasingly clamorous calls for the banning, removal, or controlling, or censoring of ‘misinformation’ as an enforced general policy. (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...)

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...)

A rhetoric of slowness and speed has been used by philosophers since the ancient periods to characterise and assess different ways of life. (more...)

The Dao De Jing is often not so different from other philosophies of its time. Acting according to nature, virtue as a skill, and the Daoist praise of humility are reminiscent of similar passages in the works of Stoics, Epicureans and Aristotle. (more...)

How far does our responsibility extend? What can we rightly be regarded as responsible for? (more...)

From a Kantian lens, reducing a person to their appearance or sexuality treats them as a means to visual pleasure, not as a rational being. (more...)

The “Fair Innings Argument” assumes that there is such a thing as a fair share of life. But can we compare different lives in this way? (more...)

Recently, two Claude AI units were set to converse with one another without much intervention. What emerged wasn’t chaos or code breakdown. (more...)

We are not water pills. We are highly scientific magic pills based on an ancient organic recipe. (more...)

We examine the basic ideas behind the four main Western ethics theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, social contract ethics and virtue ethics. (more...)

Descartes admired her intelligence and Leibniz stood at her deathbed, but during most of her life, she was a penniless refugee. Meet Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia. (more...)

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

Democratic countries congratulate themselves on being democratic and are ever ready to spot, mock and condemn sham democracies. (more...)

These therapeutic, ethical and self-control ideas are the most important reason for the interest in this ancient philosophy, but a growing number of people are exposed to a superficial, surface-level Stoicism. (more...)

A history of philosophy in its most famous quotes. Today: Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus saying: Everything flows. (more...)

Can the political philosophies developed on Earth, in completely different circumstances, truly apply to life on Mars? (more...)

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

It is sometimes said in a conflict or fight between people that, ‘Sometimes one has to take a side’. To emphasise the imperative, ‘just’ is added, and we have, ‘Sometimes one just has to take a side’. (more...)