Since ancient times, philosophers have pondered the question of what it means to be a person. David Hume observed that we cannot say much definitively about our world because we do not have other worlds with which to compare it. […]
Read more
Category: Philosophy
Philosophy in the real world.
Let’s Insert Some Philosophy into the Response to the Pandemic
It shouldn’t be a political debate, but somehow it is. What should we as a society do in response to the Coronavirus pandemic? Seems obvious to anyone with any humanity: save people’s lives. Bizarrely, some feel we shouldn’t spend efforts […]
Read more
Martin Buber on Encountering Others
Martin Buber on Encountering Others “When we encounter another individual truly as a person, not as an object for use, we become fully human.” – Martin Buber As a philosopher, my main research focus is on human relations, specifically the […]
Read more
Am I An Individual? A Philosophical History
Are you an individual? Sounds like a silly question, doesn’t it? You’re you, right? You aren’t anybody else. But it’s not quite that simple. First off, being good philosophers, we have to define our terms. What do we mean by […]
Read more
Why We Need More Black Voices in Philosophy
Trevor Noah is a comedian, but in a deeply personal and thoughtful video released 30 May 2020, he is a philosopher. It’s wonderful. Seriously, it is a brilliant piece of philosophy. You can view it here and even if you […]
Read more
Understanding Hegel
Understanding Hegel. It is a bit of an exaggeration to say that in the last 100 or so years there has been a war in philosophy. But if we can describe the long “analytical/continental” divide in philosophy as a war, […]
Read more
A Lesson From Covid-19 On The Need To Dig Deeper
As philosophers, I believe we are charged above all with the need to not accept facts at face value, but to dig deeper to find the truth.
Read more
Love (and Hate) in The Time Of Coronavirus, Covid-19
As a philosopher, I am keenly interested in events that cast a light on human nature. The Covid-19 pandemic is one giant spotlight. The pandemic is bringing out the good and bad in humanity. One of the long debates in […]
Read more
The Crucial Differences Between Capitalism And Free Enterprise
Capitalism is an economic system that has both passionate defenders and fierce critics. But both sides in the debates over capitalism’s beneficial and harmful affects tend to conflate capitalism with free enterprise. Much of the defense of capitalism takes the […]
Read more
“If it happened once, it can happen again.”
“If it happened once, it can happen again.” – Primo Levi Not all wisdom is feel-good candy. Harsh truths can be the most important truths. The quote in the graphic above expresses one of the most important facts of our […]
Read more