The Best Articles in Philosophy

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We have a great deal of trouble telling what is innate and what is learned in human nature, whether ideas or emotions

From classic texts to modern philosophy books for beginners, these are the best philosophy books to fill your shelves with.

Scientists believe they have the answer, but philosophers prove them wrong.

«An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), David Hume argues that inductive logic is unjustified. Inductive logic is the process of making observations and then drawing larger conclusions from limited data»

Professor Jonardon Ganeri FBA explains the meanings and uses of philosophy, from the ancient world to the present day.

«To do philosophy nowadays is to attend to the ways things are by attending to the concepts according to which we understand them.»

INTRO Here’s a short introduction to some of the most fascinating philosophical issues about happiness. We are going to look at three...

Arnold Bennett’s How to Live on 24 Hours a Day explores a meaningful life by addressing the age-old question: how can we make the best use of our time?

«What you learn today becomes the scaffolding to solving tomorrow’s problem.»

“Courage, devotion, the spirit of sacrifice, are as contagious as cowardice, submission, and panic.”

Seven tactics from the ancient world that have stood the test of time

The modern world is disenchanted. God remains dead. But our need for transcendence lives on. How should we fulfil it?

Knotty problems call for sound advice. Use philosophy to find the intellectually dependable amid the frauds and egotists

«As a virtue, intellectual benevolence involves patterns of emotion and thought, not just actions.»

For the most part, we can’t change the world. We can’t change the fundamental facts of existence–like the fact that we’re going to die. We can’t change other people. Does that mean that everything is…

«The world is dyed by the color of your thoughts»

There is always a demand for more jobs. But what makes a job good? For that, Immanuel Kant has an answer

Looking for a work of science fiction that will make you really think? Welcome to these philosophical sci-fi books!

To all inhabitants of Plato’s Cave, If you are receiving this letter, it means you have been designated a tenant of the cave—i.e., you are chained ...

Possessed of a monumentally impressive intellect, the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was not blessed with a body to match. Bald, short, and unhandsome of feature, he accordingly availed himself of that universal male cosmetic—and prosthetic—of his era, the peruke (figure 1). Leibniz’s peruke ameliorated several bodily shortcomings: it covered his bald pate,

Chrysippus of Soli was a Stoic. In fact, he was such a good Stoic, that he eventually became the head of the Stoic school in Athens. It might be easy to imagine Chrysippus today as some grave and…

«Curiously enough, both death acceptance and Stoic endurance are the facets that most likely do align with ancient Stoicism»

Of all the things in life we don’t control, the past is the clearest. It already happened. It’s done. It’s set in stone. Perhaps we could have controlled and changed it, but the fact is, we didn’t.…

«” If you did your best, if you gave it your all, if you acted with your best judgment—you’ve won.»

I remember reading an article years ago about a father in Yemen who lost a son to starvation, only to have another child fall dangerously ill. Desperate, he turned to tribal elders who recommended a…

«People can be led to believe and defend almost anything, because the goal of a belief is often not to discover what’s true»

What we can learn from Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance, and what we must all do to practice tolerance.

An ancient Greek recipe for happiness

«Scholars have shown that courage can lead to resilience after adversity, and resilience leads to greater happiness.»

Is there an afterlife or is this the only life we get? Most think science says there is no afterlife. But this view, while common, is wrong.

«Most believe science says there is no afterlife. But this view, while common, is wrong.»

What we really want is to experience our lives in ever-richer ways. And that means getting off the clock. Here, a master outlines how to do just that.

The amount of times I had to do the math to see how old I was this year was alarming. Even as I wrote this piece, I had to check, 36, right? Wait, did I accidentally do 36 last year? I don’t know why,…

«Be patient—evaluate later. Don’t kick yourself now because you think you’re stuck. You might be the opposite of stuck and just not know it. »

How does a person live a good, meaningful life? Many schools of philosophy and religion have attempted to answer this important question. The result of their efforts is a long history of diverse…

The short version of the paper I just published