philopapers

How do we know what we believe, want, intend, or feel? In other words, how do we come to possess knowledge of our own minds? One historically influential answer to this question is that we know the contents of our minds via introspection. We “look inward” to determine what mental states we token. And when […]

An introduction to our existential special issue by Anja Steinbauer. Existentialism as a philosophical movement stretches from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. Its leading figures included such giants as Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre. These thinkers had very different approaches and

This book brings together a thoughtfully curated collection of essays that offers Kierkegaard as an important resource for anyone thinking through the intersection of religion, ethics, and social life in twenty-first century contexts. And, of course, one is not surprised that navigating this particular intersection also involves rich engagements with philosophy and literature. The collection

Stuart Hanscomb argues that existentialism is punk philosophy par excellence. Whenever I’m asked “So, what exactly is existentialism?” I experience a sinking feeling. It’s a difficult philosophy to explain; efforts typically end up trivializing or obfuscating so much about it that is important, original, and relevant. A number of things account for this, but an

Baruch (or Benedict) de Spinoza is best known for two books: the Ethica (E), completed in 1675 but only published in his Opera Posthuma of 1677; and the Tractatus theologico-politicus (TTP), published anonymously in 1670. Although these books are widely held to be masterpieces today, much ink has been spilled over the question of how the two books are related given

Lucian Lupescu says the disputatious Dane dares us to live. There is a general tendency in the non-philosophical world to dismiss philosophy as being purely theoretical, with no connection to the types of problems that people are confronted within their everyday lives. But this is not necessarily true. Many philosophers struggled to find ways to

There are few more reliable ways to get attacked in public these days than by expressing sympathy for eugenics.[1] Often this reaction is a case of moral grandstanding.[2] Of course, much evil has been done in the name of eugenics.[3] But the word is ambiguous, and the past misapplication of a word or a theory doesn’t mean the underlying

Alisa Anokhina on how the quest for authenticity can help in treating depression. Colloquially, the word ‘depression’ is often used for listlessness, extreme sadness, or a profound sense of loss. It’s no wonder that so many people with a diagnosis of depression struggle to be taken seriously: to the unaffected, the problem sounds akin to

The view that ancient philosophers made no use of the notion of consciousness, and perhaps even the view that consciousness does not enter philosophical discourse before Descartes, may still have its adherents. However, anyone who reads the Enneads can hardly overlook the fact that consciousness plays an important role in Plotinus. D. M. Hutchinson’s study is thus

Stuart Greenstreet on the abysmal failure of theories about crime and punishment. Prison doesn’t work. Theories about the punishment of lawbreakers fail in practice because they disregard the real conditions of people’s lives. The apparatus of criminal justice exists to secure a society in which everyone is free to do pretty well as they wish