When AI Can’t Do Art
Roll over, Beethoven AI. Philosopher Sean Kelly explains why creativity is, and always will be, a human endeavor. (But you don’t have to burn your pixellated auto-Rembrandt poster just yet.)
How the Ethics Came About
Philosopher Philip Pettit tells an edifying just-so story about how ethics came into being. (audio)
Socrates in Love
Classicist Armand D’Angour argues that the ideas of a “fiercely intelligent” woman from Socrates’ youth, Aspasia of Miletus, are at the root of Western philosophy
The Philosophy of Punk
Philosopher Nicholas Smith reflects on punk, philosophy and his love of the Buzzcocks. As one-time philosophy student and Buzzcock’s songwriter Shelley said: punk, like philosophy, is about questioning things.
Islamic Philosophy and Epistemology of Religion
Philosophers Jon McGinnis and Billy Dunaway have been awarded a (near) one million dollar grant to study medieval Islamic philosophy and apply it to contemporary questions about the epistemology of religion: “The Christian West and Islamic East: Theology, Science, and Knowledge.”
Ethics of Big (Animal) Data
Researchers are tagging an ever-increasing number of animals and with sometimes sophisticated tracking sensors. A debate has arisen over the consequences for animal welfare, conservation, and technology. The ethics of big data is not just about us.
The (More) Good Place
NBC teams up with philosopher Todd May (consultant for their show The Good Place) to make a series of videos as philosophical supplement to the show — under the irreverent title of Mother Forkin’ Morals.
Man Sues Parents for Having Him
Antinatalism is the view, detailed for instance in David Benatar’s Better Never to Have Been that having children (at least in our era, if not always) is morally wrong. Now, 27-year-old Raphael Samuel, a professed antinatalist, is suing his parents for having him without his consent.
Curbing the Sweep of Misinformation
Technology has given rise to an age of misinformation. But philosophy — and certain valuable lessons from epistemology — could help eliminate it.
Philosophy Flips the Script on Prison Culture
Participants in a recent study became calmer, more able to express their point of view without aggression and developed more open minds.
Latinx Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia ofPhilosophy has a new entry on Latinx philosophy. Latinx philosophy is philosophical work substantively concerned with Latinxs, including the moral, social, political, epistemic, and linguistic significance of Latinxs and their experiences.[1] Although its emergence as a distinctive, self-identified field is relatively recent, Latinx philosophy includes a substantial body of work that draws from a variety of philosophical traditions.
Dignity and the Transhuman
Human dignity is one of those ideas that seem to have been around for as long as humans themselves, and few people would take issue with it. But like most ideas, human dignity has a philosophical pedigree, and there are in fact those who say we should abandon the notion—or at least modify its invocation. What is human dignity? And how does it play into such areas as bioethics, particularly the notion of radical human enhancement? (audio)
Contrapuntal Persuasion
Former philosophy doctoral student Natalie Wynn brings a rare skill for rational argument and emotional persuasion to one of the most vicious battlefields of the online culture wars.
Sir Francis Bacon on Climate Change
Bacon helped usher in the scientific revolution. If we’re serious about combatting global warming, we should follow his example.
Decency in an Indecent Place
How can you be a good person when it feels like you’re in the Bad Place? The philosopher consultant for the afterlife comedy “The Good Place” was just one of the speakers for the third-annual “Night of Philosophy and Ideas” — a twelve-hour philosophical all-nighter at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Brian Eno and Philosophy for Airports
Philosopher John T. Lysaker examines different ways of listening and how the ambient music created by pop and avant-garde leader Brian Eno provokes audiences “to think about the act of listening itself.” Lysaker’s recent book Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports is published by Oxford University Press.
Beyond the Trolley Problem
Welcome to your new ethics test, Silicon Valley: an adaptive quiz that becomes harder the more questions you get right.
“When Did You Disappear?”
Three philosophers set up a booth on a street corner in New York City – here’s what people asked.
Your Goofing Off May Be Goofing You on
What happens when we play video games? Lots of things: we frown in concentration, we mash buttons, we zone into an imaginary world. But according to Liam Miller, we also engage philosophically with issues of ethics, identity and more. (audio)
How to Grow Old. or Rather How Not.
Bertrand Russell on how (not) to grow old. “In spite of the title,” his essay begins, “this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject.”
What Does Retributive Justice Look Like?
Retributivism contends that it is wrong to punish people who are innocent and to inflict greater punishment than is proportionate to the offense. In their recent book legal philosopher Kimberly Kessler Ferzan and Larry Alexander explore the underpinnings of retributive justice — uncovering and tackling the conundrums to which it gives rise. In their just-previous book, Ferzan and Alexander argued for the controversial views that attempted crimes are as culpable as completed crimes and that negligence is not culpable and should not be within the sphere of criminal law.
The Vice of Fear
Is fear such a bad thing? Nobody likes to experience it, but fear can be a spur to virtuous action, and overcoming fear is the essence of courage. But not everyone takes such a benign view. this discussion explores the Stoic idea that fear is actually a vice, and one that needs to be expunged from our emotional repertoire. (audio)
Philosophy Through Cartoons
An interview with Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein about their recent book I Think, Therefore I Draw: Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons (audio)
What If There Was No One?
Would human extinction be a tragedy? It may seem a strange question to ask, but we may learn something about ourselves by confronting this question.
Ethics of Policing Through Family Dna
A high-profile arrest in California showed how the long arm of the law can now extend into DNA databases to check for relatives.
The Wrench in the Moral Machine
The Moral Machine experiment aimed to gather data on what a driverless car should do when faced with a runaway-trolley-type problem. But the answers we need here cannot be obtained by just gathering more data — for several reasons.
American Philosophy: A Love Story
In this recent book, philosopher John Kaag tells of his personal journey to philosophy through his quest to save the personal library of Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking.
Blackburn on the So-Called Post-Truth Era
Our distress over “post-truth” discourse is in itself an indication that truth lives on, philosopher Simon Blackburn tells us.
Who Wears Bentham’s Rings?
Famed utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham — whose mummified body is permanently on display at University College London — is missing some rings. Twenty, to be exact.
Are Codes of Ethics Inert?
New research suggests having a professional code of ethics does not effect the decisions made by software developers. This should not surprise us. Tech sorely needs ethics, not just codes of ethics. UPDATE: See also this coverage in Forbes magazine.
40 Million Runaway Trolleys
In 2014 researchers at the MIT Media Lab designed an experiment called Moral Machine. The idea was to create a game-like platform that would crowdsource people’s decisions on how self-driving cars should prioritize lives in different variations of the “trolley problem.” Forty million have now tried their hands at the switch. What did we learn?
Between the Moon and Evil
What makes a rocket safe? Are you sure—really, really sure? To answer this question to NASA’s exacting standards, you’ll need not just a grasp of engineering, but an understanding of metaphysics and the epistemology of space travel. To truly answer this question, you’ll need to be a philosopher… of safety engineering.
On Reparation
Historical injustice presents a complex problem for descendants of the original victims and perpetrators. When individuals and communities today still suffer the consequences of past wrongs — slavery, dispossession, invasion, the theft of land and resources — what exactly is owed to them, and who should pay? (audio)
Becoming Responsible
Responsibility and accountability in the digital era: Do collective and artificial intelligences change the deal?
How to Respect Your Enemies
A review of philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum’s book The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis.