11 December 2025
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Oct 22, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
- Why Crispin loves writing takedowns of cultural icons
- Crispin: Ludwig Wittgenstein is overrated
- Dan objects to people who try to live their lives philosophically
- Hume and the limits of human reason
- Wittgenstein’s critique of representationalism
- Did Wittgenstein debunk philosophical skepticism?
- Crispin: I want my metaphysics to be compatible with my common sense
Oct 4, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi
- What is the foundation of Buddhist ethics?
- Experiencing not-self
- Buddhism is a synthesis of consequentialism and virtue ethics
- The origins of Buddhism’s concern for animal welfare
- Does the Buddha want you to be vegetarian?
- Why isn’t there more anti-militarist activism among Buddhists?
- Trying to comply with the Buddhist ideal of “right speech”
- Mental defilements and their eradication
- Does Buddhism’s emphasis on equanimity discourage activism?
Sep 20, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Agnes Callard
- Why Agnes once lay down on the yellow line in the middle of the road
- What explains “akrasia,” or weakness of will?
- Agnes’s book, Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming
- How Agnes views free will and self-creation
- How do you become the “you” that you want to be?
- Aspiration and the divine
- Agnes’s forthcoming book on how Socrates changed the rules
Sep 18, 2019 —
Nikita Petrov & David Poleski
TAGS ancient philosophy | Buddhism | Christianity | consciousness | meditation | mysticism | spirituality
Aug 8, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
- Crispin’s recent essay, “Western Philosophy as White Supremacism”
- Dan accuses Crispin of ahistorical revisionism
- Descartes as a product of his age
- Privileging the intellectual over the physical
- Is “the conquest of nature” a good or bad thing?
- Crispin: Metaphysics and racism feed each other
- Is self-mastery a key to freedom, or antithetical to it?
- The worst political philosophy, except for all the others?
Apr 12, 2019 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & B. D. McClay
- B. D.’s essay on mononucleosis and gnosticism
- What the ancient gnostics believed about body and spirit
- Fingernail clippings and other problems with bodily resurrection
- Pros and cons of living in a body
- Did George H.W. Bush get to walk out of his wheelchair at the gates of Heaven?
- B. D. explains the Children’s Crusade of 1212
- The Children’s Crusade’s contemporary resonances
- Queer Eye, the reality show that makes you feel good about humanity
Mar 4, 2019 —
Nikita Petrov & John Horgan
TAGS ancient philosophy | Buddhism | Christianity | consciousness | enlightenment | human nature | literature | philosophy | religion | spirituality | technology
Jun 26, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- Dan and Massimo on ontology: What exists and what doesn’t?
- What, if anything, do Saturn’s rings have in common with virtue?
- Materialism as a product of scientism
- The immaterial features of human life and society
- The most important philosopher you’ve never heard of
- What does Daniel Dennett mean by “self,” anyway?
- Massimo: A single ontology isn’t enough to describe reality
May 25, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
- What is the Logos?
- The practicality of metaphysics
- Philo of Alexandria’s vision of global harmony
- Plotinus and the connection between human and divine
- The Logos and Christianity
- The Logos as an algorithm
- Why do the laws of physics infallibly work?
- Carl Jung and the Logos (and Jordan Peterson’s Jungianism)
Apr 25, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
- Is masculinity treated as a pathology?
- Why girls are outperforming boys in class
- Disentangling gender and sex, culture and biology
- “Girl power” was a success, but at what social cost?
- Crispin’s years as a teen revolutionary
- The modern school as a totalitarian institution
- What really explains high-security schools?
- How safe can we reasonably expect to be in society?
- Is the media distorting our narratives of crime and danger?
Feb 22, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Daniel Tippens
- What does Dan K. mean by Philistinism?
- How philistines reduce the irreducible in all walks of life
- Philistinism’s creeping control in philosophy and the academy
- When we invest in arts and letters, what do we get in return?
- What good are refined senses, anyway?
- Dan T. explains how refinement can prevent us from being duped
Jun 23, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
- Massimo’s new book, How to Be a Stoic, and Bob’s forthcoming book, Why Buddhism Is True
- Similarities between Buddhism and Stoicism
- The metaphysics of Stoicism
- Is there a Stoic version of the Buddhist “not-self” doctrine?
- Massimo’s Stoic advice column
- Seneca’s tips for anger management
- Achieving an objective awareness of your emotions
- Using meditation to cope with feelings of failure
TAGS ancient philosophy | Buddhism | human nature | meditation | mental health | mindfulness | philosophy | psychology | self
Jun 6, 2017 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- “Purpose” in science and morality
- What Aristotle thought about purpose in nature
- Why asking “what is it for?” makes sense in biology but not other sciences
- Does form dictate function?
- Is there a “law” of morality?
- The paths to human flourishing
- Why a “scientific” approach to ethics à la Sam Harris doesn’t work
May 15, 2017 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- Massimo’s new book How to Be a Stoic
- Why we all need a philosophy of life
- Why Stoicism can appeal to Christians, Buddhists, and atheists alike
- Stoic virtues, disciplines, and areas of study
- Cynics—the monks of Stoicism
- Things within and outside your control
- Massimo’s Stoic version of a Dear Abby column
Jan 17, 2017 —
Daniel Kaufman & David Ottlinger
- Dan’s definition of classical liberalism
- Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Mill’s On Liberty
- Mill and Locke on the individual
- The social contract and political authority
- The group and the individual in the modern world
- How much of a liberal was Mill really?
- Social censorship and the PC debate
- Is Mill’s utilitarianism at odds with his liberalism?
- Classical liberalism in America
Dec 5, 2016 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- How do ancient and modern philosophy differ?
- Philosophy as a way of life
- How the scientific revolution changed philosophy
- Has modern ethics gone down the wrong path?
- Why did ethicists turn away from virtues and toward moral rules?
- Do universal ethical principles exist?
- What Sam Harris gets wrong about ethics
Nov 27, 2016 —
Nikita Petrov & Robert Place
TAGS ancient philosophy | Buddhism | Christianity | consciousness | enlightenment | meditation | mysticism | mythology | occult | philosophy | politics | psychology | religion | self
Aug 23, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Daniel Ogilvie
TAGS ancient philosophy | death | ethics | history | monotheism | New Atheists | philosophy | psychology | religion | Richard Dawkins | science | soul
Jul 5, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Steven Nadler
TAGS ancient philosophy | atheism | Buddhism | Christianity | Donald Trump | enlightenment | ethics | evolution | Judaism | meditation | mysticism | philosophy | politics | religion
Oct 3, 2015 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- “Virtue ethics” vs. typical modern understandings of morality
- What do you need to live a “flourishing” life?
- How to tell the difference between a Cynic and a Stoic
- When our moral intuitions and our moral systems conflict
- What Massimo finds appealing about a Stoic lifestyle
- Why you shouldn’t focus on external outcomes
Nov 1, 2014 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- Stoic Week is almost here—get that catering order in!
- Wrestling philosophy out of the ivory tower and onto the street
- Neo-Stoicism: Like the ancient kind, but with less Zeus
- A day in the life of a practicing modern Stoic
- Can Stoicism be a secular replacement for traditional religion?
- That guy who always cries at weddings? Probably a philosopher
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