Avishai Margalit argues that a compromise becomes "rotten" when it institutionalises humiliation. Political necessity may justify many things, but not treating people as less than moral equals. But is humiliation a clear enough criterion? Read in issue 174: philosophynow.org/issues/174/M...

"Death is tragic because it eliminates everything that would have followed in life." Jimmy Licon explores Don Marquis' influential "future like ours" anti-abortion argument and its surprising implications for eggs, chickens, and moral consistency: philosophynow.org/issues/174/M...

This month we're celebrating 20 years of Philosophy Now editor Grant Bartley 🎉 Grant is also the author of the philosophical fiction story The Tragic Destiny of Life on Earth, featured in our current issue: philosophynow.org/issues/174/T...

Ancient Greece's guide to living well here. Massimo Pigliucci argues that all three Delphic injunctions are really about knowing your limits. Today, is respecting your limits wisdom, or surrender? philosophynow.org/issues/174/T...

If someone offered you immortality, would you accept? In Who Wants to Live Forever?, Dan Pollen explores Williams's challenge and the philosophers who think he may be wrong: philosophynow.org/issues/174/W...

The new issue of Philosophy Now is JUST OUT. If death is inevitable, does that diminish life's meaning and value - or create them? Issue 174 explores mortality, immortality, antinatalism, ethics, Camus, Hannah Arendt, Star Trek, and more: philosophynow.org

At a recent talk on common sense, Anja Steinbauer discussed Hannah Arendt's idea that common sense is what allows us to inhabit a shared world. If so, meaningful disagreement depends on common ground. How much shared reality is needed for genuine debate?

Meet fortnightly on Zoom with Dr Anja Steinbauer and others at midnight (UK time) for a candlelit hour of thinking about life, the universe and everything. Tonight's topic is "Agnosticism". Entry from 23:45. Sign up at: www.meetup.com/london-philo...

Which philosopher would you pack for the beach? Our reader Steven Kent chooses Epicurus, celebrated by the followers on the 20th of each month - today. More featured reader letters: philosophynow.org/issues/173/L...

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Can knowledge exist without belief? Or is it a logical impossibility? In his philosophical review of Nosferatu, Ștefan Bolea explores reason, the unknown, Romanticism, Expressionism, and the darker corners of human experience: philosophynow.org/issues/173/N...

Is there a difference between legal permission and ethically meaningful consent? And what about collecting and reselling user data - normal business practice or a breach of privacy and trust? J.C. Michaels explores in "Code of Conduct" (philofiction): philosophynow.org/issues/173/C...

If you found a watch on a beach, you’d assume it had a maker. So if nature is far more complex than a watch, does it too require a designer? William Paley’s famous “watchmaker argument” still fuels debates about God, design, and evolution: philosophynow.org/issues/173/W...

Anders Wallin argues that strong welfare societies reduce the need for people to turn their lives into exhausting meaning-seeking projects. A humane society is one where most people can live decent, balanced, “unheroic” lives - think Scandinavian model: philosophynow.org/issues/173/L...

We all play multiple roles, shaped by our nature, circumstances, and decisions. The Stoics thought the challenge is to perform each well - not collapse them into one identity. Read Massimo Pigliucci's "Four Roles That Shape Life" in issue 173: philosophynow.org/issues/173/F...

Is philosophy of any use for real life conflict resolution - what's your experience? 🤔 Cartoon by Mike Shiell (issue 173)

A new Hackett edition of On Liberty now credits Harriet Taylor Mill as co-author. But when is it justified to revise authorship, and on what grounds? Where do we draw the line between influence, contribution, and authorship? More philosophy news: philosophynow.org/issues/173/N...

Is something right because God commands it, or does God command it because it is right? Best known as Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma, this question has long shaped debates across traditions. Is divine law fixed, or open to interpretation? And what follows? philosophynow.org/issues/173/I...

What happens when distance turns people into “dots”? Philosophy Now Founder Rick Lewis gives a lecture on objectivity, perspective, and moral detachment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZHJ...

What does our laughter say about us? Comedy can bond us, relieve tension, or act as a social weapon. But does what we find funny reveal who we are? On Charlie Chaplin’s birthday, a philosophical look at humour: philosophynow.org/issues/173/I...

We never observe causation - only correlation. So why assume the brain produces consciousness? Drawing on medieval Islamic philosophy, Adnan Abbasi explores a radical alternative, and its implications for understanding AI: philosophynow.org/issues/173/T...

What if the problem isn’t that we do too little, but that we do too much? In "In Defense of Idleness" (issue 173), Wendell O’Brien argues that idleness is underrated: philosophynow.org/issues/173/I...

We are saddened by the passing of philosopher Susan Haack. She left behind a body of work devoted to truth, evidence, and the discipline of inquiry. In her recent interview she argued the real danger of "post-truth" is erosion of trust: philosophynow.org/issues/169/T...

Around Easter, love is often framed as giving and surrender. For Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, too, love is self-emptying. Divine ideal, or something human love can approach? Read "Love & Emptiness in the Sufi Tradition" in issue 173: philosophynow.org/issues/173/L...

Meet fortnightly on Zoom with Dr Anja Steinbauer and others at midnight (UK time) for a candlelit hour of thinking about life, the universe and everything. Tonight's topic is "Journey". Entry from 23:45. Sign up at: www.meetup.com/london-philo...

JUST OUT: Issue 173 of Philosophy Now explores Islamic Philosophy: Sufi love & selfhood, law & reform, and what medieval metaphysics might say about AI. Also: hypocrisy, memes, comedy & more. philosophynow.org

Observation is never neutral, it’s shaped by how we ask. Heisenberg’s philosophy challenges the idea of a fixed world simply waiting to be uncovered: philosophynow.org/issues/172/H...

Does philosophy have rituals? At the London Mithraeum, Stoic ideas were lived through ritual. Today: meditation, therapy, even academic debate follow patterns that shape thinking. Do these sharpen thought, or limit it? Explore Mithraism: philosophynow.org/issues/172/A...

Would you ruin your shoes to save a drowning child? Peter Singer’s idea: if you’d help nearby at little cost, why not far away? Death in a Shallow Pond by David Edmonds explores this, and Effective Altruism. Review by Dylan Neri pushes back, sharply: philosophynow.org/issues/172/D...

Today brings together Happiness Day and World Social Justice Day - two ideals that are often assumed to go hand in hand. But do they? In Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, an entire society’s happiness depends on the suffering of a single child. Which matters more: happiness or justice?

In this conversation with Vansh Deswal on The Human Lens, Anja Steinbauer, an Editor of Philosophy Now and Founder of Philosophy For All, reflects on how philosophy shapes the way we think, disagree, and live, and why #philosophymatters. Full interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZpO...

This weekend we lost one of the most influential philosophers of the modern era: Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026). Habermas spent his life defending the idea that democracy depends on rational public dialogue: philosophynow.org/issues/26/Ju...

When life gets messy, should you go to psychotherapy… or philosophy? In Amazing Times at the Pub Agora by John Douglas Mullen, a troubled man walks into a bar and ends up discussing his moral problem with a philosopher: philosophynow.org/issues/172/A...

Today is the Birthday of Douglas Adams, who often poked fun at philosophers, yet few writers have smuggled so many philosophical questions into comedy. Read Massimo Pigliucci's review of "Philosophy and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy": philosophynow.org/issues/104/P...

Yesterday was International Women's Day. More than two centuries ago, Mary Wollstonecraft made a bold case for women’s education and intellectual independence in her groundbreaking book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: philosophynow.org/issues/147/A...

How should children be educated - through discipline or nurturing curiosity? Philosophers have long disagreed. Matt Qvortrup shares some highlights: philosophynow.org/issues/172/P...

In Prague 22, philosopher Raymond Tallis rides a tram and reflects on what it means to be a thinking, embodied human being moving through history and place. Fittingly for World Book Day, this was the first book ever published by Philosophy Now: philosophynow.org/issues/167/P...

What can philosophy say about grief? Nearly 2,000 years ago, Plutarch faced the death of his young daughter. Read extracts from Plutarch's moving letter to his wife and Massimo Pigliucci's reflection on it: philosophynow.org/issues/172/P...

In The Post-Paralysis Peace Paradox, Cassandra Brandt reflects on how Stoic ideas helped transform enforced stillness into a different kind of freedom: philosophynow.org/issues/172/T...

In Hitchcock’s Rope two students convince themselves that Nietzschean “superiority” idea - the notorious "Übermensch" - justifies murder. Les Jones’ philosophical review (issue 172) suggests that Nietzsche would have begged to differ: philosophynow.org/issues/172/R...

We're delighted to announce that the lively Philosophy Now discussion forum is back online again. It has a new address (canzookia.com). No hidden algorithms, and you can choose from sub-forums covering every area of #philosophy.

In "Brief Lives: Friedrich Nietzsche" (issue 172) Hilarius Bogbinder considers the all too human life of the notorious iconoclast: philosophynow.org/issues/172/F...

For Cicero, virtus - virtue - was not private morality alone, but the foundation of public leadership. Read ‘Cicero & the Ideal of Virtue’ by Abdullah Shaikh in Philosophy Now issue 172: philosophynow.org/issues/172/C...

In "Good Grief!" (issue 172) Tim Madigan tells the story and ponders the philosophy of Peanuts - the iconic cartoon by Charles Schulz, featuring Charlie and Sally Brown, Snoopy, and friends: philosophynow.org/issues/172/G...

In "A Very Short History of Critical Thinking" (issue 172), corporate philosopher Luc de Brabandere summarises a long history through key figures of thought. A fresco by Rodolphe Duprey illustrates the article: philosophynow.org/issues/172/A...

What makes a great speaker? For the Roman educator Quintilian, technique was never enough. The true orator must be formed in character as well as rhetoric. Read The Educational Philosophy of Quintilian by Philip Vassallo (Issue 172, Roman Philosophy dossier): philosophynow.org/issues/172/T...

What if you met all the other lives you might have lived? This puppet adaptation by Tamara Keldany brings to life ‘Me, me, me?’, a philosophical short story by Benjamin George Coles, first published in Philosophy Now Issue 169. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYE...

In the current issue's Philosophical Haiku, Terence Green turns to Lucretius, the Roman author who used poetry to give contemporary voice to Epicurean philosophy: philosophynow.org/issues/172/L...

In "Identity in the Age of Connectivity" (issue 172), Sara Asran explores how digital life reshapes who we think we are, from what we buy, to what we post, to how we present ourselves to others: philosophynow.org/issues/172/I...

Our new issue 172 looks at the Roman - and Roman-inspired - philosophy. In this opening feature "Machiavelli’s Roman Empire", Samuel Spound explains why the author of The Prince thought about Rome so much - and not for the reasons one might think: philosophynow.org/issues/172/M...