Eudaimonia 101
One school in the UK turns to the teachings of Aristotle in an attempt to boost pupil wellbeing. Welcome to Eudaimonia 101
Do We Exist Just to Be Made Useful?
Irish President M.D. Higgins, who has been an advocate fof philosophy in schools, cautions against engineering our education systems as though the ultimate aim of education is to make us “useful.” Higgins was speaking at the 2019 Irish Young Philosopher Award ceremony.
Who’s a Cute Dog?
Philosophy majors set out to determine who has the cutest dog. The results? As complicated as you might expect. (See also summary coverage in Daily Nous.)
Saint Anselm: Weird With a Beard
Anselm of Canterbury (11th century) argued that once a man is old enough to have a beard, it is unbecoming for him not to have one. In a recent paper, philosopher Henry Pratt (lightheartedly) takes up the challenge of the ethical and aesthetic obligations of facial hair.
Hiking with Nietzsche
19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was a great hiker who spent much of the last decade of his life in the high country of Switzerland. John Kaag is a 21st century philosopher who travelled to the Swiss Alps with the aim of hiking the same trails as Nietzsche, and putting into practice some of Nietzsche’s recommendations for “becoming who you are”. In his memoir Hiking With Nietzsche, what John Kaag finds is that following in the footsteps of the great German thinker requires big shoes. (audio)
Philosophy Beyond Outrage
Nonviolent resistance could help confront righteous indignation and show us a path beyond the polarised present.
First Tolerance and Something About a Comet
Pierre Bayle, widely read in the 18th century, offered the first distinctly secular justification of multicultural tolerance in his 1982 “Various Thoughts on the Occassion of a Comet.”
Wittgenstein’s Hut
A new exhibition at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society presents replicas of three huts of 20th-century philosophers who did some of their most important thinking in conditions of exile.
True Confessions
Resentment, blame and guilt are generally placed on the negative side of the ledger of human emotions. Nobody particularly enjoys the way they feel. But they are morally important all the same, both in the public sphere and in the realm of interpersonal relationships. And guilty confessions, while sometimes making us feel uncomfortable, can be valuable in communicating respect. (audio)
Freedom of Association and Otherwise
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new entry on freedom of association. The entry surveys several philosophical debates about the nature, scope, and value of our freedom to associate with other people in these different ways as well as our freedom to dissociate both from particular people and from people in general.
Chief Ethics Officer
The C-suite has a new denizen. A few forward-looking companies have instituted a chief ethics officer position. This executive helps steer corporate values more broadly—and recently has been at the center of the discussion of how AI algorithms get used.
The Race to Ethics
Can ethics be a competitive advantage in the booming artificial intelligence industry?
Q&A: Quantum and Albert
Philosopher David Albert thinks there might be a “clear and straightforward” way of thinking about quantum phenomena.
When Is a Woolly Mammoth Not a Woolly Mammoth?
If creatures just like tigers developed independently on some other planet, it is generally agreed that those wouldn’t be tigers — not the very same species. So, what if you went all Jurassic-Park on some woolly-mammoth DNA. Would the resulting creature count as member of a species that went extinct eons ago?
The Philosopher and the Lie Detector
An incident, during office hours, with a philosopher’s lie detector inspired this Yale student’s debut novel.
Mugged By Reality
Watching reality TV probably won’t give you square eyes. But might it deform your character? With its parade of ghastly characters and displays of toxic behaviour (eagerly abetted by producers with an eye on the ratings), reality TV draws increasing concern from observers who fear that cast, producers and audiences alike could be participating in something morally reprehensible. (audio)
What Is It Like to Have a Sixth Sense?
If you could add a novel sense beyond the normal five, what would you want it to be? (audio)
Giving Philosophy the Business
Humanities subjects such as philosophy are just as vital to the future labor market as computer science, law, etc.
What I Did on My Summer Vacation in Another Possible World
Philosophers sometimes talk about other possible worlds to explore the one we live in, others, such as David Lewis, even believe that all possible worlds actually exist. Philosopher Helen Beebee explains how philosophers use possible world scenarios and why this matters. (audio)
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Philosophy of Fasting
Asceticism has been a way of expressing philosophical and religious beliefs – and for good reason. Historian of philosophy Peter Adamson (“History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps”) discusses.
Ethics for the AI Arms Race
The AI community is so enthralled by the science in this age of discovery that it hasn’t properly stopped to examine the risks from who controls the power and what they do with it.
Mind the Character Gap
People like to think of themselves as reasonably virtuous, but there is usually a gap between how they think of themselves and how they actually behave. Discussin the character gap and how we can close it. (audio)
Existentialism in Crisis
Existentialism entered the popular consciousness after World War 2, and for many it still has a mid-century ring to it—Fanon, de Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus. But how do its theoretical outlines look today, especially in an age where the unfolding environmental crisis calls for something more than radical humanism? (audio)
Why Science Needs Philosophy
Despite the tight historical links between science and philosophy, present-day scientists often perceive philosophy as completely different from, and even antagonistic to, science. On the contrary, philosophy can have an important and productive impact on science.
Hobbes on Science
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new entry on Hobbes’ Philosophy of Science. Though Hobbes is now mostly known only for his political philosophy, in his own time, he was also well-known for his views in mathematics, natural philosophy, and optics.
Algorithmic Ethics
Nintey-four percent of AI projects end up sitting on the shelf, because there are issues of trust and transparency.
When AI’s Emote
Is creating emotional AI simply a technological challenge, or is there some deeper ontological barrier? (audio)
Socrates, Hubris and Social Media
Socrates’ ancient philosophy shows why moral posturing on social media is so annoying.
Live on Stage! Socrates
A review of Tim Blake Nelson’s play “Socrates”. Can Socratic philosophy make a good evening of theatre? Well, maybe. Ask Plato!
Children of Climate Change
In a series of classroom walkouts children are striking against government inaction on climate change. Reactions to such actions have been varied, and has resulted in a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for teen activist Greta Thunberg. Here philosopher Rupert Read discusses the legitimacy of child protest through the lens of the theory of civil disobedience.
What Is Truth? Frank Ramsey and the Vienna Circle
For Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, much of philosophy was mere nonsense. Then came Frank Ramsey’s pragmatic alternative.
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A Device to Make Your Moral Mistakes for You!
Do we really want our autonomous vehicles to do as we would do? The New Yorker takes their turn on the recent results of the Moral Machine experiment/survey.
The Night of Living Philosophically Dangerously
If you missed The Night of Philosophy and Ideas (or if you woke up and really weren’t sure whether you did), Quartz magazine has the recap for you.
Do You Really Want Your Prognosis Now?
We’re getting better at diagnosing diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, that still have no cure. But as diagnoses creep forward, we’re left facing a new set of ethical dilemmas.
The Immanuel Kant International Airport
When (hometown) philosopher Immanuel Kant won a popular poll for renaming the Kaliningrad (Königsberg) airport — all hell broke loose. “He wrote some incomprehensible books that no one . . . will ever read!”
Black Holes Found in Physics
Philosopher of physics, Erik Curiel, surveys physicists and finds that different subfields conceive of and reason about black holes in radically different, and often conflicting, ways; and there is, in fact, no common definition of what a black hole is. But methodologically speaking, maybe that’s okay (for now).