The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new entry on causation in Arabic and Islamic Thought. In the classical period of Arabic and Islamic thought (9th–12th centuries), original and influential accounts of causation emerged from debate within two intellectual traditions: speculative theology and Greek philosophy.
Can you be a good person if you do bad things? Who should have power? These are questions of direct relevance to young people from troubled backgrounds.
When one of the presidential hopefuls said recently that the U.S. needs more welders and fewer philosophers, philosophers and welders alike took notice. Here, Tania Lombrozo talked with Stanford philosopher, Ken Taylor, who once worked as a welder.
The inaugural essay of philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah’s new ethics column in the New York Times. He takes up questions over honoring a dead relative’s last wishes and downsizing a library.
With the total collection of his paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, Andy Warhol puts the human mind on exhibition
Philosopher Ted Honderich reveals just how our consciousness isn’t limited to the inside of our heads. (video)
Philosopher Adam Biggle discusses themes from his recent book, A Field Guide to Fracking.
Socrates copped a bad rap over corrupting the youth. What would his Athenian accusers make of the burgeoning philosophy for children movement? (audio)
Deep Thought—the super computer in the hit series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—came up with 42 as the answer to the meaning of life. It says something about the question: what exactly are we asking when we talk of life’s meaning? We’ve been working on it for a couple of millennia and the answer remains elusive. Thaddeus Metz hasn’t been put off, and he’s trying to come up with a plausible account of what all the meaningful aspects in life have in common. (See also further coverage on Radio National, Australia) (audio)
Philosopher Ray Monk looks at the life of Walter Benjamin, and discovers how he found his calling.
We have not yet established a universal code that guarantees protection for human beings who are no longer citizens.
Amid recent scandals, Alva Noë considers an essay on the role of cognitive bias in science — and how methods of research in one field, like physics’s data blind study, could be replicated in others.
Mainstream feminism focused on climbing the corporate ladder cannot achieve justice for women, or anyone else. An interview with philosopher Nancy Fraser. “As a feminist, I’ve always assumed that by fighting to emancipate women I was building a better world — more egalitarian — just and free. But lately I’ve begun to worry that … our critique of sexism is now supplying the justification for new forms of inequality and exploitation.”
How are scientific discoveries transmitted to medical clinical practice? When the science is new, controversial, or simply unclear, how should a doctor advise his or her patients? How should information from large randomized controlled trials be weighed against the clinician’s hard-won judgment from treating hundreds of patients? Philosopher Miriam Solomon discusses themes from her recent book, Making Medical Knowledge. (audio)
Gratitude might not itself comprise the most weighty moral phenomenon, but it can be “telltale” of moral interactions and relationships, and of their complexification in modern moral philosophy. Philosopher Barbara Herman discusses. (audio)
Philosopher Berit Brogaard discusses the issue in the light of recent studies.
Philosopher Graham Priest discusses some key philosophical ideas that emerge from the Buddhist tradition, including questions about the nature of the self, reality, and how we should live. (audio)
Scholars are hard at work sorting out why the propositions of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus they numbered like they are. We were as surprised as you are. (Update: a totally clickable map of the Tractatus.)
There’s a strong case for having a Nobel Prize for philosophy, recognising the discipline’s particular benefit to mankind. After all, in our age of propaganda there is surely cause to reward an emphasis on reason and clarity.
Art can help us frame a better picture of our human nature in a way that science cannot.
Once marriage is no longer understood to be restricted to heterosexual couples, must we then question whether it should be restricted to couples? Why not recognize plural marital arrangements? Why should there be a civil institution of marriage at all? Philosopher Stephen Macedo talks about themes from his recent book, Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage. Macedoa argues against both Natural Law theorists who would restrict marriage to heterosexual couples as well as some feminist philosphers who hols that marriage should encompass plural networks of care. argues that, as a matter of justice, marriage rights must be extended to same-sex couples. According to Macedo, the instutition of marriage only has grounding for monogamous couples. (audio)
In the history of Western aesthetics, the subject matters that received attention ranged from natural objects and phenomena, built structures, utilitarian objects, and human actions, to what is today regarded as the fine arts. However, beginning with the nineteenth century, the discourse has become increasingly focused on the fine arts. This narrowing attention occurred despite the prominence of the aesthetic attitude theory in modern aesthetics, according to which there is virtually no limit to what can become a source of aesthetic experience… Challenges to this rather limited scope of aesthetics began during the latter half of the twentieth century with a renewed interest in nature and environment, followed by the exploration of popular arts. Everyday aesthetics continues this trajectory of widening scope by including objects, events, and activities that constitute people’s daily life.
Jeremy Bentham’s Prison Cookbook — filled with recipes for cheap, nourishing food — is now available. Famously, Bentham also developed a design for prisons — his panopticon — so that all inmates might be observed by a single watchman. (Also: Chefs at the St John Smithfield restaurant in London, which specialises in “nose to tail eating,” offered to cook the recipe for Devonshipe Pie.) Um, this stuff is not vegetarian.
On philosopher Alison Gopnik’s recent suggestion that David Hume’s extraordinary philosophy was influenced by early knowledge of Buddhist thought. We are always more connected than we know.
Philosophers discuss the recent furor about drug patents and predatory price hikes.
Pascal’s famous wager requires a choice between believing and not believing in God. But there’s more than one way not to believe. New wager!!
Could every aspect of reality exist only in relation to viewpoints on it? Is everything about us socially constructed rather than given? Philosopher Jesse Prinz discusses. (audio)
Or (burning question) what is it like to be Josh Knobe in particular?
Read more "What is it Like to be an Experiemental Philosopher?"
Aristotle was onto something: A liberal arts education in college enhances one’s life, and earnings potential.
Philosopher Jason Stanley talks about the subtle and insidious ways that propaganda presents itself as pragmatism within liberal democracies. (audio)
This week, a lawsuit was filed for copyright ownership for a wild macaque named Naruto, who took the now-famous “monkey selfie.” Anthropologist Barbara J. King explores what the outcome could mean. (Update: Philosophers take note because of the obvious philosophical interest of the case Follow some subsequent discussion.)
Read more "Should Animals Be Awarded Copyright? (Real Question)"
Philosopher Peter Singer on McDonald’s recent decision to use only cage-free eggs. At two billion eggs, it is not a small deal.
“Clarity and complexity are not antagonists, but rather allies. The pursuit of clarity churns up unexpected complexity, but it can be tamed by the pursuit of further clarity.” Another way in which philosophy makes progress, according to Rebecca Goldstein. (UPDATE: Computers on UF’s campus network can also access Goldstein’s original essay free of charge.)
How do you make an information resource that is at once authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date? In this, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy may be the most interesting website on the internet. Not (just!) because of the content—which includes fascinating entries on everything from ambiguity to zombies—but because of the site itself. Its creators have solved one of the internet’s fundamental problems: How to provide authoritative, rigorously accurate knowledge, at no cost to readers. It’s something the encyclopedia, or SEP, has managed to do for two decades.
Read more "Solving the ‘Impossible Trinity’ of the Internet Age"
On John Malkovich’s forthcoming album, Like a Puppet Show, his collaborators use Malkovich’s reading of Plato’s allegory of the cave as remix material over original music/soundscapes. The remix artists here are a curious mix themselves and include Yoko Ono, OMD, Dweezil Zappa, Ric Ocasek and others. (A sample track is included with this article.)
According to a recent study, when we converse, every 90 seconds one of us will interject to recover from some miscommunication that has occurred. Huh? Who? She did what? What does this mean for our philosophical understanding of language?
What is color? On the one hand it seems obvious that it is a property of objects – roses are red, violets are blue, and so on. On the other hand, even the red of a single petal of a rose differs in different lighting conditions or when seen from different angles, and the basic physical elements that make up the rose don’t have colors. So is color instead a property of a mental state, or a relation between a perceiving mind and an object? In her recent book, Outside Color, philosopher of science Mazviita Chirimuuta argues that neither of these basic pictures is correct. In fact, replying on contemporary perceptual science, she argues that, adaptively speaking, color vision is not even for perceiving colors. (audio)