Philosophy Blogs

Discover independent philosophy blogs and writers on BlogRolly.

• Why populism became popular — Why did populism become popular? I follow Joseph Heath's argument that populists sell gut common sense against elite cog
• Maimonides on negative theology — What did Maimonides mean by saying we can only say what God is not? I unpack his apophatic theology from the Guide of th
• Vallicella on Immortal Souls — Can an Aristotelian hylomorphic soul survive the body? Responding to my old buddy Bill Vallicella, I defend Immortal Sou
• Kant’s claustrophobic metaphysics — Hot off the press: my review of Marcus Willaschek's Kant: A Revolution in Thinking appears in the Claremont Review of Bo
• Socratic politics: Lessons from the Gorgias — What if democracy trumps philosophy? I push back on Richard Rorty's "priority of democracy to philosophy", using Plato's
• Xenophanes and natural theology — Who first argued for God by reason, not myth? In this post I make the case for Xenophanes as the founder of Pre-Socratic
• What counts as death? — What counts as death? Here I lay out a simple view, constant replacement, that dissolves philosophy of personal identity
• Why it matters if "ideas get harder to find" — What if ideas naturally get harder to find? I argue stagnation in science and certain arts follows from semi-endogenous
• "Moral progress" vs. the simple passage of time — Can moral choices be judged as real progress rather than random change? In this post I unpack moral progress vs the simp
• How to Illustrate Philosophy — Could a Roman mosaic teach us how to illustrate philosophy? I follow Thomas Wartenberg's essay from Thoughtful Images, s
• Ray Briggs on Self-Love and Sin — What happens when Aaron Feltman reimagines Gabrielle d'Estrées for today? I read Ray Briggs on self-love and sin for Aes
• The beauty (?) of mathematical proofs -- Functional and non-functional beauty — What makes a proof beautiful? Here I turn to the beauty of mathematical proofs, distinguishing functional and non-functi
• Why I don't care what possible worlds are — Lecture on Lewis and Stalnaker became a classroom experiment on whether the possible worlds debate actually matters. I t
• On the adoption of logical principles — A one-day Kripke workshop at York reignited my fascination with the adoption problem in logic. What the Tortoise Said to
• The Principal Principle does not imply the Principle of Indifference — Think the Principal Principle forces the Principle of Indifference? In this post I argue HLWW's claim is mistaken. I sho
• What is justified credence? — Curious about what makes a credence justified? I use Aafira and Halim's 90% cases to separate good evidence from wishful
• Aggregating abstaining experts — Can you aggregate expert credences when some experts abstain on certain propositions? I explain the coherent approximati
• What is Probabilism? — Curious about what is Probabilism and what the probability axioms for credences really demand? In this post I question t
• Accuracy and explanation: thoughts on Douven — Curious how much five heads in ten tells you about a fair coin? I work through Igor's eleven coins toy example, compute
• More on self-recommending decision theories — Curious whether a decision theory would pick itself? I compute outcomes across 194,481 two-world decision problems, util
• Transformative experiences and choosing when you don't know what you value — What do you do when a choice changes your values? I revisit Laurie Paul's epistemically transformative experiences using
• Choosing for others when you don't know their attitudes to risk — What should a public health official do when the public's attitudes to risk are unknown? I lay out a simple decision mod
• Taking a Good look at the recent literature on inquiry — Curious about when to start or stop an inquiry? Ahead of a conference bridging mainstream and formal epistemology, I off
• Reviving an old argument for Conditionalization — A stubborn puzzle about the Bayesian norm of Conditionalization. I revive and refine our old argument, showing how Creda
• We Are God's Equals in Intrinsic Moral Value — What if we're NPCs in a Sims-style simulation run by a humanlike god? Thinking through the simulation hypothesis and the
• Four Aspects of Harmony — What if harmony is the central value. I argue for an axiology of harmony inspired by Daoism and Confucianism and framed
• Utilitarianism: it all went wrong with Sidgwick — I go back to Henry Sidgwick and the roots of utilitarianism to ask where it all went off track. This is part intellectua
• Tomorrow might too late — I reflect on why putting things off until tomorrow can cost us more than we think. I share how procrastination, hesitati
• It is ok to be ordinary — Comforting essay embracing averageness in talent, success, looks. Finds meaning in ordinary lives, relationships, small