You don’t often see thinkers dedicating more than passing remarks against veganism. After all, being kind to animals is not a controversial attitude. On moral and practical grounds, dismissing veganism is not easy. That is why I appreciate Christopher Belshaw’s article Against Veganism, which offers a more thoughtful list of arguments. They are more serious and interesting than the usual talking points vegans are met with. The article proposes that there are certain situations, outside of self-defence or obvious necessity, where killing and rearing animals for human use is acceptable. The auth ..read more

The first stanza of William Butler Yeats' much quoted poem, “The Second Coming,” contains the words: “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold… The best lack all conviction, While the worst are full of passionate intensity.” This declarative can be applied to democracy as an interrogative: can democracy hold in tension “liberty and justice for all”? Plato provides perspective on this question. Can it be that Plato is not to be painted as a fascist or totalitarian collectivist as is typically his fate? By no stretch of the imagination can Plato’s Republic be read as a treatise advocating lib ..read more

Tartaglia’s sometimes uneven exploration of how philosophy could be popularised by introducing more varied forms of philosophical storytelling to it is hugely amusing and entertaining at places, but it also has parts that don’t quite live up to its promise. Tartaglia, James (2024). Inner Space Philosophy. Why the Next Stage of Human Development Should Be Philosophical, Explained Radically (Suitable for Wolves). IFF Books. 282 pages. Kindle: 14.99 USD, Paperback: 22.95 USD. Get your copy here: Amazon US — Amazon UK — Publisher’s website If you like reading about philosophy, here's a free, wee ..read more

I have reached that time in life when my child is choosing which subjects to study for exams. As most parents acknowledge, our influence is limited and must be exercised through intricate ‘nudging’ that would make an economist proud. But in which direction should we nudge? Computer science, engineering and robotics are winning the PR war. Who wouldn’t want to work in a flashy office with bean bags and a messianic boss? Who needs history and English when Chat GPT can (approximately) tell you the causes of World War 1? The number of students enrolling in History and English undergraduate degrees ..read more

The answer to the title question is neither. Much thought has been put into whether the doing of, and going along with, horrendous and ghastly immoral acts is an ordinary or exceptional trait of human beings. Whether the perpetrators are banal1 or exceptional, whether what they do can follow from an ordinary way of life, or whether their actions have to be derived from rare extreme motivations. Saying that evil is banal does not imply that some evil actions are ordinary and unremarkable, but that some evil actions come from ordinary motives, and are performed by people who are not radical out ..read more

The writer and philosopher Albert Camus was known for his existentialist essays, novels, and love of football. Every intellectually curious football fan is probably grateful for this. I know I am. In this essay, I argue that Camus’s love for football corresponds to his existentialist love for living joyfully and free. In his unfinished autobiographical novel The First Man, Camus writes about how the protagonist overcame his shame of wearing old clothes in the classroom and “on the playground, where football was his kingdom. But that kingdom was prohibited because the playground was made of cem ..read more

The Daily Philosophy Global Essay Contest 2024 is here! We are excited to announce the Daily Philosophy Global Essay Contest 2024! This is a unique opportunity for you to engage with philosophical concepts and share your insights in a creative and impactful way. Everyone is invited to participate by submitting an essay: professional philosophers as well as philosophy students and the general public. Themes & Topics We welcome original essays of 2500-3500 words in length, in English, on the topic: HOW CAN PHILOSOPHY HELP ENSURE THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY? The essays must speak to an educated, y ..read more

There is no non-swimmer’s pool in the study of philosophy. No textbook tells students how to study philosophy. Students learn what philosophy is by themselves. Even the departments of different universities do not agree on what philosophy is, and there is also no consensus within a philosophy department as to what philosophy does. For this reason, each student must make up his or her own mind about why he or she should study philosophy. Theoretical and practical philosophy are separated, with the result that research institutes and academic journals concentrate exclusively on certain areas of ..read more

Timothy Morton (2024). Hell. In Search of a Christian Ecology. Columbia University Press. New York. 306 pages (212 pages of text in the main part of the book). Hardcover: 110 USD, Paperback: 21.63 USD, Kindle: 12.99 USD. Get it here: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Publisher’s website. If you like reading about philosophy, here's a free, weekly newsletter with articles just like this one: Send it to me! A few times in one’s life, even in one as filled with books as mine has been, one encounters a book that has a special magic to it. That seems to be made from different stuff, different words than th ..read more

Most classical Chinese philosophers accepted a moral history of humankind. Humankind, originally, suffered a miserable existence. Life was precarious. Starvation, storms, wild animals, and more contributed to anxious struggles to survive. Things changed with the sages – a series of culture-bearing geniuses who established the practices and institutions of civilized life, like literacy, agriculture, and the elaborate rituals of social life. From then on, life became peaceful and prosperous, a cultural and moral ‘golden age’. This romanticised vision of the past contrasted, alas, with the dire r ..read more