Book cover for An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design. The presentation based on this chapter was really interesting. Didn’t know about the first emergency medical response team was formed by Black volunteers.

Eighth International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life (March 26-28, 2026 | University of Oklahoma) The deadline for abstracts will be October 26. www.ou.edu/cas/philosop...

In this Japanese book, I was interviewed about the “fear of death” (thanatophobia), and I explained my ideas in a clear and organized way. So if you’re interested in this topic, I think you’ll find it an easy and engaging read.

During a casual chat at a small seminar, I mentioned proudly that I finally finished watching Harry Potter movies on my round trip to Edinburgh. But it turned out everyone else there knew Harry Potter inside out,

My presentation on robots and the concept of inochi (“Can a robot have life?”) at the European Network of Japanese Philosophy (ENOJP) is now over, and after the long discussion I realized that my argument had many problems. On the night of the presentation,

International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying will hold its sixth biennial conference on June 9–11, 2026, at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. We warmly invite you to come to Tokyo and join the discussion on the philosophy of death and dying at Waseda.

Roster of exciting new IAPDD events! (1) Call for abstracts for our biennial conference, being held in Tokyo, June 2026. Deadline for submissions is 3 November! www.philosophyofdeath.org/sixth-bienni...

At the ENOJP Conference in Edinburgh on September 4th, I will give a talk on robots and the concept of inochi (life). Below is a summary made by ChatGPT (😊). #robot #ethics #philsky ＿＿＿＿＿ This presentation asks a simple but profound question: Can a robot have inochi (life)? To answer this, I will:

There has been very little philosophical work on the concept of “inochi” (life in Japanese) so far. I plan to revisit and update one of the few existing studies, my “The Concept of Inochi” (1991), and present it at the ENOJP conference in Edinburgh this September. enojp.org

The Spanish translation of my book Manga Introduction to Philosopy. (Introduccion a la Filosofia en manga.) It’s available on Amazon. amazon.com/dp/B0DF6MDV97/

When people read what I write, they often say the logical flow is super clear, that's probably one of my strengths. But when they actually talk to me, I’m just like, “Uh, I don’t know,” or “Hmm, I wonder…?” all the time. I guess that’s just how my brain is wired, so it can’t be helped.

If I get a flash of a new idea, that alone keeps me happy for the rest of the day. On the flip side, if nothing like that comes up, I end the day feeling kind of unsatisfied. For me, the joy of discovering an idea might actually be greater than the feeling of making progress on a paper. #philosophy

Today, while I was listening to a friend’s philosophy talk, I suddenly got closer to solving a philosophical problem I’d been thinking about, even though it was only loosely related to the topic of the lecture. It’s weird how breakthroughs often come from ideas that are just slightly off-topic.

Of course mood and outlook shape meaning of life, but the motivation to have reality the way one wants isn't sufficiently explored here. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

This is another commentary on my paper "A Phenomenological Approach to the Philosophy of Meaning in Life". #philsky #psyhology studyfinds.org/your-lifes-m...

Since Waseda University issued a news release, my recent paper, "A Phenomenological Approach to the Philosophy of Meaning in Life" (Philosophia — link.springer.com/article/10.1... ), has been featured on several newssites. #phenomenology #philsky #meaningoflife neurosciencenews.com/exploration-...

Today I am giving a talk at Keio University titled: "The Sense of Someone Appearing There: Other Minds, Deceased People, Robots, and Animated Persona".

🇯🇵🗞️ My April 2025 interview with Japanese philosopher and Waseda University professor Masahiro Morioka @masahiromorioka.bsky.social is available in Italian corriere.it/sette/25_apr... , English lifestudies.org/CORRIERE.html , and Japanese lifestudies.org/jp/CORRIERE_... . Please, check it out!

I attended the 7th International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life at Carleton University in Ottawa. All of the presentations I attended were interesting. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor David Matheson for his excellent management of the conference.

Night in Tokyo.

Yesterday I met Costanza Rizzacasa d'Orsogna at Waseda University in Tokyo, and we took a stroll around Waseda's Okuma Garden (photo) and the main campus. It was a lovely day.

My paper "A Phenomenological Approach to the Philosophy of Meaning in Life" has been published in the latest issue of Philosophia. In this paper, I apply phenomenological concepts such as #affordance, solicitation, and #enaction to the subjective link.springer.com/article/10.1... #phenomenology

The English translation of my 1996 book, “How to Live in a Post-Religious Age: Terrorism, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Life”, has been published as an open-access book. www.philosophyoflife.org/tpp/howtoliv... (free PDF) #cult #terrorism #philosophy I believe that the arguments in this book

Tokyo night.

Today, the number of accesses to my paper "What Is Antinatalism?: Definition, History, and Categories," which is hosted on the PhilPapers website (philpapers.org/rec/MORWIA-13), jumped to an incredible level. I believe this is due to the incident at a fertility clinic in California, #antinatalism

Listen to a dialogue titled “What Is the Animated Persona, and What Is Its Relationship to Robots, AI, and Deceased People?” performed by two AI characters—a man and a woman—automatically generated by Google’s NotebookLM. t.co/wK8FXC4X5g　#robots #ethics #philosophy #AI #personhood #persona

An interview with me, originally published in Italy’s leading newspaper Corriere della Sera, has been translated into English and is now available on the Internet: lifestudies.org/CORRIERE.html "Masahiro Morioka, the Philosopher and the Secret of the “Small Happiness” That Saves Us from Suffering".

Life, death, and the pursuit of happiness. My interview with Japanese philosopher @masahiromorioka.bsky.social for Italy's leading daily newspaper Corriere della Sera has been translated into Japanese. Part of my series on Japanese philosophy and spirituality www.lifestudies.org/jp/CORRIERE_...

The registration deadline for the 7th International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life, Ottawa, is May 15th. Please visit the registration page: payments.carleton.ca/philosophy/s...

The English translation of my 1996 book, “How to Live in a Post-Religious Age: Terrorism, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Life”, has been published as an open-access book. www.philosophyoflife.org/tpp/howtoliv... (free PDF) #cult #terrorism #philosophy I believe that the arguments in this book

In the Afterword of the manga "Welcome Back, Alice," drawn by Shuzo Oshimi(押見修造), the author writes that he was inspired by my book "Confessions of a Frigid Man" (www.philosophyoflife.org/tpp/frigid.pdf). It might be rare for a philosopher’s book to inspire a manga. #philosophy #manga #押見修造

The interview with me that appeared in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera is now available online. "Masahiro Morioka, the philosopher and the secret of the 'small happiness' that saves from pain" www.corriere.it/sette/25_apr... Machine translation is available. #philosophy #phlsky #Italy

My interview with Japanese philosopher @masahiromorioka.bsky.social for Italy’s #1 daily Corriere della Sera is now online. Machine translation available. The meaning of life, seeing our dead loved ones again, the ills of a painless civilization, an aging society www.corriere.it/sette/25_apr...

From my conversation with 🇯🇵 philosopher @masahiromorioka.bsky.social for Corriere della Sera (pls, credit properly). Sooner or later, our loved ones will die. It’s a fact of life. But we can meet them again every time we think about them. Lo spirito dei nostri cari che non ci sono più resta con noi

If life is full of pain, would it have been better not to be born? The meaning of life, seeing our dead loved ones again, the ills of a painless civilization, an aging society. A long conversation with Japanese philosopher @masahiromorioka.bsky.social for Italy’s #1 daily Corriere della Sera

I was interviewed by CostanzaRdO, which is published today in the 7-Corriere della Sera, weekly mag of Italy’s #1 daily!! #philosophy #Italy #Corriere #della #Sera

🇯🇵 This Friday, in Corriere della Sera’s magazine 7, a new installment of my series of international exclusives on Japanese culture, philosophy, spirituality. The series began in November with figure skating legend Yuzuru Hanyū and continued with living Buddha RyōJun Shionuma 🌸

By me 🙌

Bernard Williams talks about "a world in which he did not occur at all" and one's "never to have existed at all" in Chapter 6 "The Makropulos Case" in Problems of Self (1973). His discussion is not necesarily clear but very impressive. #philosophy #antinatalism

A long interview with me will be published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera Sette on Friday, April 18. I hope those in Italy will have a chance to read it. The title is: Il filosofo e il segreto della “piccola felicità” che salva dal dolore #philosophy #Italy

I came across the English term "persona prompt" for a generative AI for the first time. It seems closely related to the concept of "animated persona," which I coined several years ago. link.springer.com/article/10.1... #AI #philosophy #persona #robots

Japanese philosopher Tetsuro Watsuji's revolutionary idea of persona (和辻哲郎, 1935), illustrated by ChatGPT using a slide from my presentation. #Japanesephilosophy #Watsuji #philosophy

Jennifer Robertson writes in her 2014 paper, "Inochi, the Japanese word for “life,” encompasses three basic, seemingly contradictory but inter-articulated meanings: a power that infuses sentient beings from generation to generation; a period between birth and death; and, most relevant to robots,

I gave a presentation on the concepts of "inochi" (life) and the animated persona, and their application to robots, at the Embassy of the Netherlands, Tokyo. The event was organized by Matthew Dennis from Eindhoven University of Technology. #philosophy #robots #robotethics

🇮🇷 I have just received notification that "Person, Thing, Robot" @mitpress.bsky.social has been translated into Persian and is now available.

Michael Hauskeller "Meaning in Life: A Subjectivist Account" has just been published. www.amazon.com/dp/3031803612/ In an academic world where objectivism about meaning in life constitutes the mainstream, this defense of subjectivism is extremely important. #philosophy #meaning #philsky

It seems that the analysis of the mentality of lolicon otaku men in my book "Confessions of a Frigid Man" is gaining sympathy in the Anglophone world. #otaku #lolicon #sexuality x.com/twinkdefcon/...

An interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, the most widely read newspaper in Japan, has been published on March 2. In this interview, I discuss the philosophy of meaning in life, antinatalism, and a philosophical theory of birth affirmation (the affirmation of having been born). #philosophy #philsky

🇯🇵 PTR Tokyo Today I will be presenting "Person, Thing, Robot" @mitpress.bsky.social during a public lecture in Tokyo. With commentary from Masahiro Morioka and Hayate Shimizu. Event organized by Reina Saijo of Tokyo Denki University.

@kamilmamak.bsky.social @davidgunkel.bsky.social and Hayate Shimizu in Tokyo 🇯🇵 ... pre-gaming for the big event tomorrow and talking about the many ways that Japanese philosophy can contribute to the relational turn in #AI and #robot #ethics.