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Andreas Matthias

James Tartaglia: Inner Space Philosophy

Book review
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...)
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Andreas Matthias

Timothy Morton: Hell

Book review
Hell is utterly impossible to put down just because of the sheer force of its language… (more...)
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Can You Steal a Culture?

Making sense of cultural appropriation
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...)
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Andreas Matthias

Christopher Hamilton: Rapture

Book review
Christopher Hamilton’s “Rapture” is a very pleasant, well-written, intelligent, and inspiring essay on the many meanings of human lives. (more...)
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Andreas Matthias

New Video Series: Western Ethics Theories

The Shortest Possible Overview
A new series of Daily Philosophy whiteboard explainer videos has just been published on YouTube. It gives a very short, and hopefully amusing, introduction to the main theories of Western ethics. (more...)
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Andreas Matthias

Western Ethics Theories

The Shortest Possible Overview
We examine the basic ideas behind the four main Western ethics theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, social contract ethics and virtue ethics. (more...)
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Islam in 10 Minutes

Its history and main ideas
How did Islam begin and expand, what do Muslims believe, and what does the daily practice of a Muslim believer look like? (more...)
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The Paradox of Fiction

Why are we scared by things that don’t exist?
The paradox of fiction asks how we can experience genuine emotions for things that we know not to be real. (more...)
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Plato’s Theory of Forms

Stepping out of the shadows and into the light
For every thing in the real world, there is a “perfect” image somewhere in the world of Forms. A perfect cat, a perfect tree, a perfect circle. (more...)
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What is a Fallacy?

How to Spot and Avoid Logical Pitfalls
A fallacy in Critical Thinking is an error in argumentation that makes an argument invalid. (more...)
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The Presocratics

The most important thinkers and their ideas
The Presocratic philosophers were a group of thinkers who lived in ancient Greece before the time of Socrates. They were interested in understanding the natural world and the underlying principles that govern it. (more...)
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James Barham

Monism and Dualism in the Mind-Body Problem

The mind-body problem concerns the relationship between the mind and the body (or the brain). Two major philosophical views on this problem are monism and dualism. (more...)
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What is the Philosophy of Religion?

Does every religion need a god?
The philosophy of religion is a wide and varied field of study that is different from both theology and the history of religions. It touches metaphysics, epistemology and many other areas of philosophy. (more...)
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How To Self-Study Philosophy

5 game-changing tips
Here are a philosophy lecturer’s 5 tips on how to self-study philosophy as an adult learner. (more...)
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B.V.E. Hyde

The Shortest History of Japanese Philosophy (2)

Part 2: The Confucian Phase
In this series of posts, BVE Hyde presents a short but complete history of Japanese thought. This second part focuses on Confucianism. (more...)
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John Shand

How Humour Works

This is about humour. I shall not make any clear distinction between humour in general and jokes, only to say that jokes are archly and tightly structured set pieces and a subgroup within humour. (more...)
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John Shand

Ineffable Understanding

Seemingly intractable paradoxes involved in speaking of the ineffable are based on a mistake. (more...)
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B.V.E. Hyde

The Shortest History of Japanese Philosophy (1)

Part 1: The Buddhist Phase
In this series of posts, BVE Hyde presents a short but complete history of Japanese thought. This first part focuses on Japanese Buddhism. (more...)
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Guilherme Figueiredo

A Brief History of Hermeneutics

What is Hermeneutics? ‘Hermeneutics’ is an ancient topic whose philosophical outlines have evolved through time. In a broad sense, hermeneutics can be defined simply as ‘interpretation,’ ‘the art of interpreting,’ or ‘the study of interpretation. (more...)
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Andreas Matthias

How to Think Like a Philosopher

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

A Very Short Philosophical Dictionary

A dictionary of philosophy with one exatly entry for each letter. (more...)
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Superhero Thought Experiments

Book review
Superhero Thought Experiments, by Chris Gavaler and Nathaniel Goldberg, is a very enjoyable book that presents classic arguments from philosophy by discussing examples of superhero comics. (more...)
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What Is Philosophy in Simple Words?

Philosophy is a field of study that attempts to answer questions that cannot be answered by providing some fact, but that require a deeper understanding of the question. (more...)
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John Shand

The Knowledge-Effect

Is more knowledge always better?
Awareness of the knowledge-effect is important because it is something we need strongly to guard against if we are to make good normative judgements. (more...)
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John Shand

The Wind on Your Face

A reflection
The limits of language are all there before us in the everyday. For there is no description or account of the wind on your face (nor of the experience of seeing a red rose) that could give you any idea at all what the wind on your face was like to have. (more...)
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Who is the Father (or Mother) of Philosophy?

Diotima, Socrates, Plato, Aspasia of Miletus, Aristotle, Confucius and Lao Zi are the most influential figures within their respective traditions. (more...)
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What Is a Valid Argument?

Critical Thinking basics
In a valid argument, it is not possible that the conclusion is false when the premises are true. Or, in other words: In a valid argument, whenever the premises are true, the conclusion also has to be true. (more...)
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Stoic Control

How to stay calm in everyday life
At the core of the Stoic theory of happiness is our ability to control our thoughts. The wise man should try to exercise control over what they can control and not try to control what they cannot. (more...)
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What Does ‘Stoic’ Mean?

A short history of Stoicism
A ‘Stoic’ attitude to life aims to achieve lasting happiness by staying calm, rational and emotionally detached, while cultivating one’s virtues. (more...)
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Is Lying Ethical?

Lying, deception and when they are justified
Lying is generally perceived as unethical behaviour. Depending on the moral theory used, lying in special circumstances (for example, “white” lies or lies that benefit others or avert harm) might be morally justifiable. (more...)
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Sofia Jeppsson

Retributivism and Uncertainty

Why do we punish criminals?
Why do we have a criminal justice system? What could possibly justify the state punishing its citizens? Retributivism is the view that we ought to give offenders the suffering that they deserve for harming others. (more...)
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Dao De Jing: A Hermit’s Manual

Daoism and the hermit life
The Dao De Jing, one of the main books of Daoism, has always appealed to hermits. In this article, we look at it through a hermit’s eyes. (more...)
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Dao De Jing

The Taoist book of the Way
The Dao De Jing, literally “The Classic of the Way and the Virtue,” is traditionally attributed to an author known only as Lao Zi, which means “Old Master.” (more...)
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Meritocracy and discrimination

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
Do we really deserve the lives we have? And are we providing enough chances to those who need them? (more...)
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Meritocracy: Do we deserve our lives?

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the idea that hard work (as well as laziness) eventually get their just rewards and that, therefore, people deserve the lives they have. But is this true? Or do we all just rely on luck to achieve the positions in life that we have? (more...)
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Sports and Society

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the ethics of sports in general. From whether sports benefit populations to drugs, doping and the problems of nationalism, it is surprising how many interesting moral issues are caused by sports! (more...)
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The Ethics of the Olympics

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the ethics of the Olympics. From environmental problems to the protection of underage athletes, the Olympic Games cause a number of ethical problems that are worth discussing. (more...)
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Human Autonomy

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy ask what autonomy really is. What does it mean to be “free”? Are drug addicts free? And what is unique about human beings? (more...)
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Technology and Freedom

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy ask how technology affects our freedom. Are we free to choose particular technologies? Are we free to reject them? And is democracy powerful enough to deal with technology? (more...)
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Work, Leisure and Fulfilment

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy continue their discussion of E. F. Schumacher’s famous 1973 book “Small is Beautiful,” and particularly the role of work in human life. (more...)
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Small is Beautiful - Economics as if people mattered

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss E. F. Schumacher’s famous 1973 book “Small is Beautiful”. We unpack the main theses of the book and look whether they are still valid 50 years later. (more...)
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What is Deep Ecology?

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss Deep Ecology, a philosophy of respecting the rights of nature as equal to our own. But does this really work? Can we make sense of treating nature with just the same consideration that we give ourselves? (more...)
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Nudges

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss nudges - small incentives designed to push us to make particular choices. Can we ever act in a truly free way, or do we have to resign ourselves to being nudged around? (more...)
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Anarchism

The Accented Philosophy Podcast
In this episode, Ezechiel and Andy discuss the history and principles of anarchism. Can we ever achieve an anarchist society, and should we want to? (more...)
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Catherine Greene

Asimov’s Psychohistory

The illusive quest to predict the future
Why is it so difficult to make predictions about society? The problem is not the complexity of the task, but the concepts we use to think about the world. (more...)
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Catherine Greene

What to Do When People Talk #$!!~#

The importance of meaningful disagreement
Can two people’s experiences and outlooks on life be so different that meaningful communication between them is impossible? Recent events suggest so. (more...)
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What is Alienation?

Karl Marx on how society fails us
One of his best known concepts of Marxism is the idea of “alienation” that describes how human beings get estranged from their work. (more...)
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Monism, Dualism and the Philosophy of Mind

Do we have a soul?
The human mind is unique and we know of no other comparable phenomenon in the universe. The philosophy of mind (monism, dualism, computationalism) attempts to explain what exactly the mind is. (more...)
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Podcast Episodes [all]

  • 100. Descartes Discourse on the Method and Meditations (Livestream) - Part 2
  • 099. Descartes: I think therefore I am (Livestream) - Discourse on the Method Part 1
  • 098. Plato's Symposium - Part 3 (Livestream)
  • 097. Plato's Symposium - Part 2 (Livestream)
  • 096. Plato's Symposium - Part 1 (Livestream)
[All Episodes]

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