political-philosophy-and-ethics

My background is in mathematics and physics, so it is relatively easy for me to by glance judging whether something is a legitimate paper or someone’s “personal theories” about mathematics and ...

TL;DR: This thread is a review of the book Our Mathematical Universe. This thread is a review of Max Tegmark's book Our Mathematical Universe. The thesis of Our Mathematical Universe is that not only does mathematics perfectly describe the universe, the universe is mathematics.. In... Read more

In other words, Can sensory capacities be explained within the framework of purely physical explanation? Light rays make an impact on the sensory organ. If it hits the visual sense organ, we have a ...

Dr Tim Causer invites readers to help complete a transcription project and to explore the writings and correspondence of the philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham Your article on the digitisation and transcription of German love letters is a wonderful reminder of both the goodwill of the crowd and the pleasures of archival research ( Sixty thousand love letters and counting: volunteers help sif…

Religious and atheist thinkers agree: Modern tech fuels anxiety, loneliness, and spiritual degradation. But the solutions require more than reducing screen time.

Could consciousness exist in alien life forms that look nothing like us? Could it even appear in machines? According to a new paper by philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel of the University of California, Riverside, and Jeremy Pober of the University of Lisbon, the answer may be yes. The researchers argue that consciousness is probably not limited […] The post Consciousness may exist beyond humans, ani…

Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, assert that consciousness is likely possible in lif…

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the sudden collapse of the independent Greek city-states, the Mediterranean world entered the Hellenistic Era (323–31 BCE). Cut loose from the tight-knit political communities of their ancestors, everyday individuals were suddenly cast into a massive, unpredictable global empire. In this climate of profound political displacement and anxiety, the…

My point-of-departure is Steven Luper's "Competing for the Good Life". Luper explicitly argues against competitivism as a theory of goodness, and so a fortiori as a theory of rightness. I ...

Kant’s Categorical Imperative may be a good rule of thumb, but some reinterpretation may be in order.

What is matter, really? Is matter an independent substance, or is reality fundamentally relational? In this episode, we explore some of the deepest questions in philosophy, metaphysics, and modern science, including Quantum Physics, Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Dark Matter, Consciousness, Space, Time, Cosmology, and the Nature of Reality itself. From atoms and particles to galaxies […]

Todd May, Should We Go Extinct? A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times. Crown, 2024. 176 pages. Humans are the only species that can both cause and contemplate their own extinction. Our enormous technological and philosophical abilities put us in a unique existential situation – one that informs discussions about whether we are wise enough to keep ourselves in existence. Many of the arr…

I asked a question about this topic in general recently but it’s not the same question so bear with me. The cogito’s force seems to come from treating “thinking” as exempt from the doubt applied to ...

A conversation with Harvard philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin on material, biological, and spiritual belonging The post How to Feel at Home in the Modern World appeared first on Nautilus .

The standard method for justifying a mathematical theorem is to provide a proof. However, mathematicians are human and sometimes their proofs might contain errors that are not so obvious, and aren't ...

Published on June 12, 2026 7:28 AM GMT [AI Use Disclosure: Asked Claude to draft this, then entirely rejected its suggestions] I've read a lot of good moral philosophy linked from the EA Forum, but not much of it ( Joe Carlsmith excepted ) has focused on some of the not-evidently-utilitarian traits and dispositions one could cultivate to become the kind of person that does the most good. I'm disc…