Philosophy News https://philosophynews.com/ Think About It Wed, 14 Oct 2026 21:45:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 /wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cropped-image_bg_512x512-32x32.png Philosophy News https://philosophynews.com/ 32 32 “When one wishes to move or to speak, first one should examine one’s own mind, and then act…” https://philosophynews.com/when-one-wishes-to-move-or-to-speak-first-one-should-examine-ones-own-mind-and-then-act/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 21:45:32 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/?p=119371 “When one wishes to move or to speak, first one should examine one’s own mind, and then act appropriately and with self-possession.” - Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra, Crosby & Skilton tr. (5:47)

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]]> Bad Institutions and What We Can Do About Them https://philosophynews.com/bad-institutions-and-what-we-can-do-about-them/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/bad-institutions-and-what-we-can-do-about-them/ A popular category of research in political philosophy is the finding of flaws with political institutions. For example, in recent work, some political philosophers diagnose existing democracies as unresponsive and insufficiently egalitarian. Other philosophers criticize rising wealth inequalities and how that might give some individuals objectionable levels of power over others. They also criticize the […]
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]]> “To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in… https://philosophynews.com/to-be-good-is-to-be-in-harmony-with-oneself-discord-is-to-be-forced-to-be-in/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:45:32 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/to-be-good-is-to-be-in-harmony-with-oneself-discord-is-to-be-forced-to-be-in/ philosophybits:

“To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.” — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

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]]> Why your cat is the best philosopher https://philosophynews.com/why-your-cat-is-the-best-philosopher/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:24:09 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/why-your-cat-is-the-best-philosopher/ A young girl looks out of the classroom window. It’s the end of the day, and she’s bored. She spots a goldfinch land on the ground outside. It hops about and twitches for whatever reasons goldfinches do that, and then takes off. It swoops and dives around the playground, as if doing it all for […]

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]]> ‘The Mind is a Computer or LLM’: We Need to Talk About the Effect of this Simplistic View on our Relationships to our Own Minds https://philosophynews.com/the-mind-is-a-computer-or-llm-we-need-to-talk-about-the-effect-of-this-simplistic-view-on-our-relationships-to-our-own-minds/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:00:39 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/the-mind-is-a-computer-or-llm-we-need-to-talk-about-the-effect-of-this-simplistic-view-on-our-relationships-to-our-own-minds/ We repeatedly encounter claims that the brain is an LLM, or a computer, or very like one of these things. What effect does repeatedly encountering this debate have on how we understand ourselves? I think it’s worth asking, because, in my view, the debate isn’t one we would be having were it not for the […]

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]]> The South African Configuration of Fascistic Man: A Preliminary Conceptual Sketch of Afrikanerdom Fascism and the Philo-Mythical Continuum of Techno-Afrikanerdom in Silicon Valley https://philosophynews.com/the-south-african-configuration-of-fascistic-man-a-preliminary-conceptual-sketch-of-afrikanerdom-fascism-and-the-philo-mythical-continuum-of-techno-afrikanerdom-in-silicon-valley/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/the-south-african-configuration-of-fascistic-man-a-preliminary-conceptual-sketch-of-afrikanerdom-fascism-and-the-philo-mythical-continuum-of-techno-afrikanerdom-in-silicon-valley/ This short philosophical exposition uncovers the key principles inherent in the mythic schema developed in “Afrikanerdom Technofascism.” I track the development of the mythic schema of Afrikanerdom Fascism in three documents produced throughout a century of the movement’s existence: 1. “Het Idealisme van Berkeley” (1905), the doctoral dissertation of D.F. Malan; who was the founding member […]
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]]> “The degeneracy of mankind is distinguished from its uprise by the dominance of… https://philosophynews.com/the-degeneracy-of-mankind-is-distinguished-from-its-uprise-by-the-dominance-of/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:45:29 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/?p=118135 philosophybits:

“The degeneracy of mankind is distinguished from its uprise by the dominance of chill abstractions, divorced from aesthetic content.” — Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought

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]]> Reading a book exposes us to the experiences of another person. Sometimes we are given these… https://philosophynews.com/reading-a-book-exposes-us-to-the-experiences-of-another-person-sometimes-we-are-given-these/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 01:45:29 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/?p=118133 suliqyre:Reading a book exposes us to the experiences of another person. Sometimes we are given these experiences directly, as when we read a memoir or an autobiography. More often, we receive them indirectly, through the content and form of the book, which are shaped by the knowledge and intuitions the author has developed throughout their life.Not only do we gain new knowledge as we read, we also add to our awareness. Our awareness expands through the experience of reading what the author has created through their own awareness. Such an experience is enormously valuable, for the experiences we can have directly in our own lives will always be a tiny subset of the total experience of humanity. By compressing experience into the medium of language, a book allows us to experience much more than we otherwise could.We might then conclude that we can fully understand life by reading widely and that the awareness we gain from books is sufficient to living well. But while the awareness gained by reading is valuable, it does not follow that it replaces the awareness developed through other kinds of experience.Read more…

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]]> “What is our contemporary digital-infused life if nothing else but a sustained experiment in self-deception?” https://philosophynews.com/what-is-our-contemporary-digital-infused-life-if-nothing-else-but-a-sustained-experiment-in-self-deception/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 22:58:39 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/what-is-our-contemporary-digital-infused-life-if-nothing-else-but-a-sustained-experiment-in-self-deception/ “What is our contemporary digital-infused life if nothing else but a sustained experiment in self-deception?”

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]]> What was Unmuzzled OX? Andy Warhol posed with it. So, improbably, did Rodney Dangerfield — in a robe, with a lapdog https://philosophynews.com/what-was-unmuzzled-ox-andy-warhol-posed-with-it-so-improbably-did-rodney-dangerfield-in-a-robe-with-a-lapdog/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 22:58:36 +0000 https://philosophynews.com/what-was-unmuzzled-ox-andy-warhol-posed-with-it-so-improbably-did-rodney-dangerfield-in-a-robe-with-a-lapdog/ What was Unmuzzled OX? Andy Warhol posed with it. So, improbably, did Rodney Dangerfield — in a robe, with a lapdog

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