Featured

Should Buddhists Be Social Activists?

Buddhism is widely admired in the West for its commitments to progressive social activism. But is this really in the spirit of true Buddhism? (more...)

Huts, Homelessness and Heimat

David E. Cooper

For Heidegger, we let things be what they are. Chōmei, steeped in the Buddhist …

Happy in a Concentration Camp?

Michael Hauskeller

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who, because of his Jewish …

In Praise of Misinformation

John Shand

Videos

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Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha (1)

Hermann Hesse and Romanticism

Let's Read Together

Guides and Introductions

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...)

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...)

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...)

Philosophy in Quotes

Albert Schweitzer on the Reverence for Life

Philosophy in Quotes

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

David E. Cooper

Jeremy Bentham on Animal Ethics

Philosophy in Quotes

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...)

July 4, 2025

Socrates on Knowing Nothing

Philosophy in Quotes

Explore philosophy through its most famous quotes! Today: Socrates on knowing that you know nothing. (more...)

Interviews

Luca Possati on Transhumanism

Philosopher interviews

Luca M. Possati is researcher at the University of Porto, Portugal. Educated as philosopher, he has been lecturer at the Institut Catholique de Paris and associate researcher of the Fonds Ricoeur and EHESS (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales). (more...)

Dan Demetriou on the Ethics of Colonial Monuments

Andreas Matthias

Andreas Matthias on Writing About Philosophy

Miguel Angel

Miguel Angel, editor and owner of Filosofia En La Red, interviews Andreas Matthias, …

Luis de Miranda on Philosophical Health

Philosopher interviews

Luis de Miranda lives in Sweden and is a philosophical practitioner, founder of the …

Book reviews

Andreas Matthias

Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?

Book review

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...)

Robert Zaborowski

The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Consciousness

Book review

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

Ian James Kidd

Misanthropes – Literary and Philosophical

Book review: Misanthropy in the Age of Reason

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

Modern life

John Shand

In Praise of Misinformation

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

John Shand

Reasons and Causes

We are not as rational as we think we are

We think our beliefs and attitudes, and even our feelings and moods, are more determined by a reasoning process that brings us to them than they are. (more...)

David Villena

Deepfakes, deception, and distrust

Epistemic and social concerns

The main epistemic concern in the light of the potential ubiquity of deepfakes is not that we are going to be massively deceived. Global distrust and not global deception could be the ultimate consequence of deepfakes. (more...)

Hermits

Robert Rodriguez: The Book of Hermits

Book review

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...)

The Hermit of Suwarrow

The adventures of Tom Neale (1902-1977)

Tom Neale spent a total of fourteen years alone on a little island in the Suwarrow Atoll in the South Pacific, where he found peace and happiness in solitude. We have a look at this extraordinary life. (more...)

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...)

Classics

What's So Wrong With Engaged Buddhism?

Michael McGhee

Does an ‘engaged’ Buddhist really have to draw on this picture of the Buddha as a …

What Are Friends For?

Epicurus on Friendship

Epicurus’ view on the value of friends has often been romanticised and equally often …

Can love be forever?

In Plato’s Symposium, Plato defines love as the desire for the eternal possession of …

Inspiration

Aristotle on being human

What is the function of human beings?

For Aristotle, happiness is connected to function. Everything in the universe has a …

Richard Taylor on the Creative Life

Real creativity is not only in art

Richard Taylor (1919–2003) thought that it’s creativity that makes us feel happy and …

Aristotle and the Roots of Deep Ecology

Modern ecological ethics reaches back to Aristotle and his idea that the flourishing …

Ethics

Christopher Belshaw

Still Against Veganism

A reply to Petrică Nițoaia

My question was – and still is – a short good life with a pain free death, or no life at all, which would you prefer? A reply to Petrică Nițoaia. (more...)

Dan Weijers, Nick Munn, Lorenzo Buscicchi

Happy Endings

Does size or shape matter most?

We’ve heard it all our lives — size matters and bigger is better. But David Velleman wants you to believe that shape can matter more! (more...)

Vaccination Ethics

Can the state force us to get vaccinated?

Vaccination ethics is a surprisingly rich field of philosophical inquiry, and it covers issues from all major moral theories, reaching into world politics, poverty, the role of the state and the morality of taxation and car seat belts. (more...)

Nick Munn, Lorenzo Buscicchi, Dan Weijers

The Utility Monster is... other people!

Imagine waking up every evening, putting on your happy face, walking over to your immaculately laid out recording studio and… Enthusiastically unwrapping that mysterious package someone just sent you… You have no idea what it is, no really! (more...)

Dan Weijers, Nick Munn, Lorenzo Buscicchi

Simulating Pleasure

If it feels good, does it matter whether it’s real?

Nozick asked readers to imagine a machine produced by “super-duper neuropsychologists” that could give you any experience you could think of without you realising it was all a computer simulation. He called it the Experience Machine. (more...)

Peter Singer's Drowning Child

Are we required to save lives if we can?

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...)

Biographies

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Not all who wander are lost

Aristotle (384-322 BC), born in Stageira, Greece, is one of the most influential philosophers who ever lived. He worked not only in philosophy, but also wrote dozens of books on all topics, from astronomy and biology to literary theory. (more...)

September 22: John Conway (1937-2020)

The inventor of the Game of Life

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

Andreas Matthias

The Princess and the Soul

Elisabeth of Bohemia and Rene Descartes

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...)

Recent

September 21, 2025

Petrică Nițoaia

What would a Stoic do in the digital age?

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...)

September 15, 2025

“Everything Flows” -- Heraclitus the Dark

A History of Philosophy in Quotes

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

September 6, 2025

Syed W H Shah

Red Dust And First Principles

Does Political Philosophy Apply On Mars?

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

August 24, 2025

Daniel Gauss

The Secret Gospel of Frankenstein

What If the Creature Had Remained Uncorrupted?

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

August 15, 2025

John Shand

Taking A Side

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...)

July 31, 2025

Daniel Gauss

The Algorithm of the Logos

AI, Moral Truth, and the Divine Pattern

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