Philosophy Bites Daily

Quentin Skinner on Meaning, Method. Machiavelli etc.

Quentin Skinner discusses his ideas about interpretation, meaning, understanding  Machiavelli, Hobbes, freedom, and more in  a wide-ranging 2-part interview. Read more...

From Dictatorship to Democracy

Gene Sharp's little book on non-violent resistance and revolution, which has debts to both Machiavelli and Gandhi, is beautifully written. You can download it as a PDF here. Read more...

Adam Smith on Wall Street bonuses

What would Adam Smith say about extravagant rewards on Wall Street? Vanity keeps the wheels of capitalism turning, and increased goods don't do much for us. Read more...

The Cost of Free Speech

Free speech is OK, but it gets tricky when you think about hate speech and some forms of pornography. What should we do? Read more...

Robert Nozick on why so many intellectuals oppose capitalism

Robert Nozick explains how intellectuals' resentment builds up and finds expression. It all starts at school. Read more...

Cultural Pluralism

Bhikhu Parekh suggests that reason is culturally embedded. Read more...

Kwame Anthony Appiah on Stamping Out Evil

Footbinding, dueling, and the Atlantic slave trade have more or less died out. Why is this? Read more...

Hobbes for Today

Thomas Hobbes is rarely cited or extolled by present day politicians, perhaps because he was at the authoritarian end of the spectrum. Is there anything in Leviathan for today's world? Read more...

Alain de Botton on the Nanny State

Alain de Botton suggests that a bit of nannying is OK, and that it might be good for us. Read more...

What does it mean to be a Marxist?

Norman Geras aka Normblog explores the personal, intellectual, and socio-political aspects of Marxism in today's global society. Read more...

Michael Sandel on Tax and Justice

What's the point of taxation? To raise revenue for the common good, says Michael Sandel. 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...

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...

Charles Taylor on Religion, Secularism and Community

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

Can Political Philosophy Change the World?

Phillip Pettit's book Republicanism has had an impact on Spanish democracy thanks to Prime Minister Zapatero. Read more...

Zizek, Wikileaks, and the Joker

The Joker wants to reveal the truth beneath the mask; so does Julian Assange. Does that make him a villain? The philosopher-joker Slavoj Zizek riffs on the parallels between the moral ambiguities of The Dark Knight Batman film and the shameless cynicism of the global order and its reactions to Wikileaks disclosures. Read more...

Free Speech, Incitement, and the First Amendment

We can't and shouldn't use the law to censor irresponsible political speech, but we should express our contempt for violent rhetoric, says Aryeh Neier. Read more...

Jürgen Habermas - Continental Europe's Most Important Public Intellectual?

Jürgen Habermas is a philosopher whose contributions to social theory place merciless demands on the reader; but he also appears as a public controversialist. Read more...

Philosophy - A Good Preparation for Politics?

Harry Hoare has talked to a range of British politicians who studied Philosophy at university. Do we need philosopher politicians? Read more...

Human Rights and Imperialism

If the whole notion of human rights is dismissed as a thinly-disguised imperialism and an embodiment of western ideals, what happens next? Read more...