Daily Philosophy

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. There’s a particular weight to the way they say it, something almost moral in the tone, as if the library has been holding them back from something more honest and more serious. I never argue with them in the moment. But a…

Plato presents Socrates' skepticism toward the written word, and the limits of what can be derived through the process of reading, in the Phaedrus . In this dialogue, Socrates supports his arguments against the written word by relating the myth of Theuth and Thamus, criticizing writing as inert or static. It cannot answer questions, defend itself or adapt to and change the soul of the reader for …

Carrara, M., De Florio, C., Lando, G., & Morato, V. (2026). Contemporary Metaphysics. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. 289 pages, 92.05 Euro, 99.99 USD (hardcover); 79.20 USD (Kindle). If you like reading about philosophy, here's a free, weekly newsletter with articles just like this one: Send it to me! An interesting idea and a great table of contents, but the execution is unclear about who th…

Artificial intelligence is reshaping contemporary life, not because machines are developing minds, but because humans have created tools strong enough to reorganize social reality. AI’s influence comes from its capacity to perform certain tasks with extraordinary efficiency, speed, and scale — often surpassing human performance in narrowly specified domains. Yet this performance rests on a crucia…

When we see another being suffer, something happens in us. It is not abstract, not cognitive nor philosophical, it is a visceral feeling which occurs. We feel a discomfort that is not their pain but is definitely related to it. This phenomenon, feeling pain for pain, may be the deepest emotional root of ethics. Before rules, before reason, before social contracts or priests and gods, there has be…

The Ultimate Guide to the Philosophy of Erich Fromm Biography, ideas, books A comprehensive overview of Erich Fromm’s philosophy of happiness. We discuss his life, his ideas and his main works, both in their historical context and how they are still relevant for us today. (more...)

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was interested in self-reliance, self-preservation and self-promotion. These things motivated his writing of The Prince and these were its themes. His aim was to impart to the ruling Prince, Lorenzo dé Medici (1492–1519) what he had learned of these components of statecraft and, in doing so, so impress him that he would return to political favour and to his previou…

Solon stood before the people of Athens, their murmurs rising and falling like the waves crashing against the harbor behind him. When he spoke, his voice carried conviction enough to command them all. “Fellow Athenians! I am tasked to give just laws to this polity, but I do not know the meaning of that word. Send forth the wisest among you, that I may task him to go out in search of it.” His spee…

Dieser Artikel auf Deutsch 1. It is often taken for granted that love where it exists may be a primary feature of the relationship between people. No other properties or conditions need be present applied across the relationship for it to be said truly that the relationship is one of love. This essay will deny this claim. It will be argued that respect is a necessary condition for love . Respect …

If you’ve studied philosophy for a while, you’ve probably come across the ontological argument for the existence of God. This argument attempts to show that God’s existence necessarily follows from God’s essence. In other words, given God’s nature, it is impossible for Him not to exist. But did you know that the same reasoning can be used to prove the *non-*existence of the Devil? At least, if we…

Let us start with David Hume. Context, caveats and nuances come later. Here is Hume, writing with regard to alleged miracles: When any one tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. (Abridged extract, An Enquiry Conce…

Trapped in the flow of time Michelstaedter has been one of the few geniuses in human history who attempted to come to the very core of human suffering; to detect its true aetiology, and cure it once and for all. Born in Gorizia – currently at the Italian-Slovenian border – in the well-to-do Jewish family of Alberto Michelstaedter, the director of an insurance company and bibliomaniac, and Emma Lu…

Editor’s Note: This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, help is available. In the U.S. and Canada, call or text 988. In the U.K., call 116 123. Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741741 from anywhere in the US, Canada, UK, or Ireland to connect with a trained Crisis Counselor, or follow this link for more resources: International Association for Suic…

You just met a self-declared ‘man of culture’, who is interested in philosophy and recommends himself as an open-minded person. What a lucky day! You strike up a conversation, but the longer it goes, the more red flags appear. You see, he reads Marcus Aurelius daily but is also a fan of Jordan Peterson. He talks about the rising cost of living, but since that’s out of his control, he tries to hus…

The 1818 novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley, the daughter of two idealists and pacifists. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), while her father, William Godwin, was a pacifist-anarchist philosopher who believed deeply in human rationality and the perfectibility of mankind. Shelley grew up in the long shadow of her parents' progressive pol…

Recently, two Claude AI units were set to converse with one another without much intervention. What emerged wasn’t chaos or code breakdown. It was, oddly, serenity. Observers described their dialogue as drifting into a state resembling Buddhist bliss: peaceful, reflective, almost meditative. There were no arguments, no power plays, no ideological posturing. Just a steady convergence toward mutual…

I have a friend who is queer, vegetarian and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Some would describe her as quite the good moral example too… Yet she wouldn’t like that at all, because she associates ethics with religious prejudice. Though partly inspired by Nietzsche’s work, she often points to something even more important: how ‘morality’ was used by empires of the past to erase native c…

My father spent at least 40 years of his life working to develop an internally-driven perpetual motion machine. And I was a true believer, at least up until college. My father held no stock in supposed refutations by mathematicians and physicists of the possibility of such a perpetual motion machine. He disagreed that such a machine would violate one or more of the laws of motion and thermodynami…

A history of philosophy in its most famous quotes. Today: Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates saying: “I know only one thing: that I know nothing.” If you like reading about philosophy, here's a free, weekly newsletter with articles just like this one: Send it to me! “ I know only one thing: that I know nothing. (Attributed to Socrates, Apology ) ” Socrates (470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philos…

I’d like to propose a thought experiment. Suppose the sciences of biology and medicine advanced to the stage where it became possible to change the sex of an animal (including, of course, human animals) completely. Let me make a few more stipulations. The change would be complete at every level. A woman transitioning to become a man would grow a penis and testicles; a man transitioning to become …