Philosophy Bites Daily

Aristotle - the banker's friend?

Do we  need more philosopher-executives in business? Should they read Aristotle rather than Ayn Rand? Read more...

Thomas Hobbes and Tax

Did you know that Thomas Hobbes is the patron saint of tax geeks? Apparently he is. Read more...

Machiavelli and Predicting Fame

Niccolò Machiavelli wasn't famous in his lifetime, but is now. But did you know he had a formula for predicting who might be famous in the future? Read more...

Everything Should be Questioned

Even Karl Marx's detractors knew that he had something important to say about capitalism. Francis Wheen reviews Eric Hobsbawm's essays. Read more...

The Multiverse

Do we just see one thread of an infinite tapestry? Jorge Luis Borges wasn't the only one to imagine that every permutation might be realised in every respect. The idea of the multiverse has many followers. Read more...

Avoiding the Implications of Just War Theory

President Obama knows all about just war theory, but is he, perhaps, avoiding the consequence of defining U.S. actions in terms of it? Read more...

What should we say about astrology?

Astrology is an obvious example of pseudo-science, even if it sometimes borrows from astronomy (I would say that, though, as I'm an Airies). But it wasn't always so worthy of dismissal and ridicule.  Read more...

Should you let the goatherds go?

Michael Sandel explores a real moral dilemma with cadets at a military academy. Read more...

Philosophers Who Failed in Love

Althusser killed his wife, Sartre adopted his mistress as a daughter, Seneca was sent into exile for an affair. Why should we trust these characters? Read more...

Rethinking the Other

Can we get beyond 'us and them' and embrace a healthy cosmopolitanism? Although they weren't exactly 'Obamas in togas', perhaps the experience of the Ancients can teach us something. Read more...

Saul Kripke Speaks

Saul Kripke, who read Descartes when very young, found Philosophy confusing: 'One philosopher says one thing, then another one comes along and says something entirely different'. Read more...

Ronald Dworkin Asks 'What Is A Good Life?'

Ronald Dworkin thinks that living well isn't about the end result. It's the spontaneity, style, authenticitiy, and daring that we value. Read more...

Cyber-Cesspools and Free Speech

Brian Leiter makes a case for reducing the visibility of offensive cyber-cesspools, those websites, blogs, and chatrooms where demeaning and humiliating comments are  posted. But would his solution work? Read more...

The Moral Psychology of War

Nancy Sherman explores the moral anguish of soldiers and the psychological consequences of stoicism. Read more...

Charles Taylor on Religion, Secularism and Community

Charles Taylor thinks that there's more to life than the instrumentally rational perspective. Read more...

Do Men and Women Differ in their Intuitions about Gettier Cases?

Stephen Stich and Wesley Buckwalter raise the possibility that women have different intuitions about a classic series of thought experiments in a quirky article for the Philosophers Magazine. Read more..

A.C. Grayling on 'Examined Lives'

A.C. Grayling on James Miller's book about how philosophers have lived. A different set of philosophers' lives might have produced more optimistic conclusions. Read more...

Jacques Derrida - placet or non placet?

Jacques Derrida had many followers, and numerous critics who objected to his wilfully obscure Derridadaisms. I don't think it is accurate to describe him as going from strength to strength as this review of a recent biography does.  Read more...

Did Nietzsche Have Syphilis?

There is a widespread belief that Friedrich Nietzsche's dementia stemmed from syphilis contracted from a prostitute in a Leipzig brothel. But that might be a smear put about by anti-Nazis, according to this 2003 article. Read more...

How To Become a Philosopher

A. C. Grayling thinks you should read novels in the morning and avoid just waxing lyrical in the pub if you really want to become a philosopher. Read more...