Philosophy Blogs

Discover the best independent blogs about philosophy 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
Why Would Aliens Care About Us? — What if aliens came for our DNA, not our water? Here I question the Fermi Paradox and the sample size N=1 problem, and a
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
How not to limit free speech — Not a free speech absolutist, but convinced many restrictions do more harm than good. I set out the natural law account
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
No, AI does not have human-level intelligence — Does AI already have human-level intelligence? In this post I argue the Nature claim is overstated. I show their definit
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
Why Describing Utopia Goes Badly — Why does describing utopia get mocked and vanish from debate? I recount my hunt for utopian studies, Mechanical Turk and
Rowing, Steering, Anchoring, Equity, Mutiny — What if the world were a ship? I use that ship analogy for improving the world to unpack five approaches people take: ro
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 Should Literature Mean? A Conversation About Art and Ambiguity — Curious whether a poem or novel can refuse to be known? In this edited interview I talk with John Gibson, Magdalena Osta
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
Debatable Persons in a Voluntary Polis — Could creating some AIs be a moral catastrophe? I defend anti-natalism about debatable persons and critique the Design P
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
Debatable AI Persons: No Rights, Full Rights, Animal-Like Rights, Credence-Weighted Rights, or Patchy Rights? — Facing an AI that might be conscious, what should we do about AI personhood and rights? I advise avoiding creation of de
How Much Should We Give a Joymachine? — What if my neighbor felt a million times more joy? In this holiday post I imagine conscious AI joymachines Hum and Sum,
"Severance", "The Substance", and Our Increasingly Splintered Selves — What makes a single self when memory, body and values split apart? I reprint my New York Times op ed on Severance (Apple
AI Mimics and AI Children — Surprising fact: the aliens we expect might already be here as AI. In "AI Mimics and AI Children" I argue why we balk at
The Intrinsic Value of Diversity — Could a distant planet help us see why moral diversity matters? I argue moral diversity has intrinsic value, not only in
Disunity and Indeterminacy in Artificial Consciousness (and Maybe in Human Consciousness Too) — What if conscious AI felt fragmented, not unified like ours? I argue that unity of consciousness and determinacy of expe
Acceptance and Rebellion — What if acceptance meant rebellion? In this post I contrast Nietzsche's active amor fati with Kübler-Ross's resignation,
'Exquisite Pain' - Damien Hirst, St. Bartholomew-the-Great, West Smithfield — A gilded C-3PO in a medieval priory? I walked into St Bartholomew-the-Great, West Smithfield in November 2017 to see Dam
Regretful Accelerationism — What if the metaverse is not an escape but a warning? In Regretful Accelerationism on Stratechery I use Ready Player One
AI and the Human Condition — Who owns the story when AI writes everything? In this post I tackle AI and the human condition, the 2025 Stratechery Yea
Ignorance is Strength: Or, teaching Laozi in Utah — Teaching the Daodejing to students far from its original context brings translation problems, classroom surprises, and t
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
Life’s little mysteries — A collection of everyday questions that don’t quite have answers why we do certain things, how habits form, what we over
Willpower vs. attention — I’m starting to think willpower isn’t the real bottleneck attention is. A few notes on focus, distraction, and why manag
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
Disturbing for all the right reasons — A reflection on art and ideas that unsettle productively, asking when discomfort is a signal to pay closer attention rat
Lady Báthory was Right — A provocative cultural essay reframing historical myth, morality, and power using Lady Bathory as a lens to examine narr