philosophybits: “Practice yourself in little things; and thence proceed to greater.” — Epictetus, Discourses The post philosophybits: “Practice yourself in little things; and thence proceed to greater.” — Epictetus,… appeared first on Philosophy News.

“Moral choice is free, and therefore unforeseeable. The child does not contain the man he will become. Yet, it is always on the basis of what he has been that a man decides upon what he wants to be. […] The drama of original choice is that it goes on moment by moment for an entire lifetime, that it occurs without reason, before any reason, that freedom is there as if it were present only in the form of contingency.” - Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity The post “Moral choice is free, and therefore unforeseeable. The child does not contain the man he will…” appeared first on Philosophy News.

suliqyre:Nihilism tells us nothing has value and by doing so it frees us from our worries about the value of things, the value of others, and the value of our own lives. By making everything worthless, we allow ourselves the strange comfort of knowing that nothing we do can possibly matter. Freedom from meaning is also freedom from responsibility, and in this there can be a kind of morbid excitement.But just like any dogma — whether ideological or religious — there can be no genuine certainty about any of nihilism’s claims, for they rely on foundations just as uncertain as anything else. Skepticism is such a powerful antidote that it can defeat not only any possible dogma, but also the most severe nihilism.It follows that to use skepticism as a justification for nihilism or any kind of cynicism is absurd. For all that skepticism can do is to show us that everything is ultimately uncertain and there are no foundations to our knowledge. The conclusion that follows is not that there is no value but that we cannot be certain of value.Read more… The post Nihilism tells us nothing has value and by doing so it frees us from our worries about the value of… appeared first on Philosophy News.

philosophybits: “I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.” — Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell The post philosophybits: “I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to… appeared first on Philosophy News.

Adam Tooze is a renowned economic historian. But is he really “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual?” The post Adam Tooze is a renowned economic historian. But is he really “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual?” appeared first on Philosophy News.

How Bennett Cerf — "part Gatsby, part glad-handing salesman and part starstruck fanboy" — built a publishing powerhouse, and sold it away The post How Bennett Cerf — “part Gatsby, part glad-handing salesman and part starstruck fanboy” — built a publishing powerhouse, and sold it away appeared first on Philosophy News.

Writers and their day jobs: William S. Burroughs was an insect exterminator, Joseph Heller a blacksmith, James Joyce worked in a movie theater The post Writers and their day jobs: William S. Burroughs was an insect exterminator, Joseph Heller a blacksmith, James Joyce worked in a movie theater appeared first on Philosophy News.

[Revised entry by Frank Griffel on January 15, 2026. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Al-Ghazālī (c. 1056 – 1111) was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni Islam. He was active at a time when Sunni theology had just passed through its consolidation and entered a period of […] The post al-Ghazali appeared first on Philosophy News.

“Democratic society as a whole must move from a mere recognition of abstract rights and liberties, from the formal principle of legally recorded right of voting and speaking to a real freedom which provides life with aim and purpose.” - Nikolai Berdyaev, “Political Testament” The post “Democratic society as a whole must move from a mere recognition of abstract rights and liberties,…” appeared first on Philosophy News.

Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, the owner of the Muskau Park (now in Germany and Poland), an aristocratic gardener and author of Hints on Landscape Gardening (Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei, 1834; translated into English for Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA, 1917) was strongly inspired by the English gardening tradition. It is not surprising, then, that he interpreted garden […] The post Garden as a Performance first appeared on Blog of the APA. The post Garden as a Performance appeared first on Philosophy News.

[Revised entry by Kelly A. Parker and Scott Pratt on January 15, 2026. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Josiah Royce (1855 – 1916) was the leading American proponent of absolute idealism, the metaphysical view (also maintained by G. W. F. Hegel and F. H. Bradley) that all aspects of reality, including those we experience as […] The post Josiah Royce appeared first on Philosophy News.

2026.01.2 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Roy Scranton, Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, Stanford University Press, 2025, 392pp., $30.00 (hbk) ISBN 9781503643161. Reviewed by Arthur Obst, University of Chicago In the decade since publishing Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, witnessing the steady march of rising global carbon emissions only disrupted temporarily by a world-wide pandemic, Roy Scranton has become even more pessimistic. In the preface to Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, Scranton recounts a family trip to Chaco Canyon. Drawing from sources in the academic literature on collapse, he hypothesizes that complexity itself doomed its once thriving Puebloan civilization. Likewise, “the problem we face with climate change isn’t just unsustainable carbon waste… or metabolic disequilibrium” but complexity itself (xxii). Climate change, he surmises, is not something subject to the management of an intentional and sustainable transition. The only ‘solution’ is simplification, and, as he argues, this is not an actionable solution... Read More The post Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress appeared first on Philosophy News.

philosophybits: “The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.” — Oscar Wilde, “Preface”, The Picture of Dorian Gray The post philosophybits: “The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the… appeared first on Philosophy News.

“He who cannot make poems will also be only able to judge them negatively. True criticism requires the ability to create the product to be criticized oneself. Taste alone only judges negatively.” - Novalis, Logological Fragments I The post “He who cannot make poems will also be only able to judge them negatively. True criticism requires…” appeared first on Philosophy News.

philosophybits: “Gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which “sexed nature” or “a natural sex” is produced and established as “prediscursive,” prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts.” — Judith Butler, Gender Trouble The post philosophybits: “Gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the… appeared first on Philosophy News.

Economic democracy is most often defended by pointing to the so-called “firm-state analogy.” Hannes Kuch’s recent plea for economic democracy in an earlier post in this series is no exception, arguing that “if being subjected to state government requires democracy, so does being subjected to corporate government. This is the consequence from the analogy between […] The post Economic Democracy as the Redemption of Political Democracy first appeared on Blog of the APA. The post Economic Democracy as the Redemption of Political Democracy appeared first on Philosophy News.

Picasso’s women. "Two wives, four cohabitations: What of it? Genius has license to trample" The post Picasso’s women. “Two wives, four cohabitations: What of it? Genius has license to trample” appeared first on Philosophy News.

John — sparsely toothed with mismatched old clothes — could most often be found at UCLA, burnishing his reputation as the last intellectual The post John — sparsely toothed with mismatched old clothes — could most often be found at UCLA, burnishing his reputation as the last intellectual appeared first on Philosophy News.

Sigmund Freud’s plants. He gave Virginia Woolf a narcissus and brought a zimmerlinde on his escape from Vienna. Why? The post Sigmund Freud’s plants. He gave Virginia Woolf a narcissus and brought a zimmerlinde on his escape from Vienna. Why? appeared first on Philosophy News.

The deadline to submit a chapter to the upcoming volume “Magic in Ancient Greek Culture and Philosophy” has been extended from January 15th to February 1st. Please consider submitting a potential chapter. The post Magic in Ancient Greek Culture and Philosophy Updated Deadline appeared first on Philosophy News.

[Revised entry by Ryan Wasserman on January 14, 2026. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] What is the relationship between a clay statue and the lump of clay from which it is formed? We might say that the lump constitutes the statue, but what is the relation of material constitution? Some insist that constitution is identity, […] The post Material Constitution appeared first on Philosophy News.

Dear Members, We are very happy to share with you the news about the publications of Rafael Ferber's new book: The Ignorance of the Philosopher : why did Plato not write the "unwritten doctrine". This is the link https://www.nomos-shop.de/de/p/the-ignorance-of-the-philosopher-gr-978-3-495-99183-1 Best wishes and Happy New Year! IPS The post The Ignorance of the Philosopher : why did Plato not write the “unwritten doctrine”, by Rafael Ferber appeared first on Philosophy News.

[Revised entry by David Wendler on January 14, 2026. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Clinical research attempts to address a relatively straightforward, and vital challenge: how do we determine whether one medical intervention is better than another, whether it offers greater clinical benefit, whether it poses fewer risks? Clinicians may one day be able to […] The post The Ethics of Clinical Research appeared first on Philosophy News.

philosophybits: “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” — Coretta Scott King, in Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today’s Complex World by Leo Parvis The post philosophybits: “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the… appeared first on Philosophy News.

“A brave soldier will plunge alone into the midst of nine armies. He seeks fame and can bring himself to this. How much more, then, is possible for a man who governs Heaven and earth, stores up the ten thousand things, lets the six parts of his body be only a dwelling, makes ornaments of his ears and eyes, unifies the knowledge of what he knows, and in his mind never tastes death. He will soon choose the day and ascend far off. Men may become his followers, but how could he be willing to bother himself about things?” - Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, Watson tr. (Ch 5) The post “A brave soldier will plunge alone into the midst of nine armies. He seeks fame and can bring himself…” appeared first on Philosophy News.