Table of contents for April - May 2025 in Philosophy Now

“Unhand me, grey-beard loon.” The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In a clearing on the edge of the woods, a flying saucer stands on spindly legs among the still-smouldering vegetation. A door slides open, light spills out, and a green face with three eyes peers at the gaggle of fearful spectators below and asks them: “What is it like to be a human being?” This is also one of the main questions being asked in the themed section of this very issue. You might protest that this is the one thing that you don’t need anybody to tell you. You’re the expert. After all, each and every one of us has first-hand experience of what it is like to be a human being. In some ways,…

‘More songs about Buildings and Food’ was the title of a 1978 album by the rock band Talking Heads. It was about all the things rock stars normally don’t sing about. Pop songs are usually about variations on the theme of love; tracks like Rose Royce’s 1976 hit ‘Car Wash’ are the exception. Philosophers, likewise, tend to have a narrow focus on epistemology, metaphysics and trifles like the meaning of life. But occasionally great minds stray from their turf and write about other matters, for example buildings (Martin Heidegger), food (Hobbes), tomato juice (Robert Nozick), and the weather (Lucretius and Aristotle). This series of Shorts is about these unfamiliar themes; about the things philosophers also write about. Philosophers on Smiles “ The old man may look down with a smile…

Hope is often celebrated as one of humanity’s greatest virtues – a force that sustains us through adversity by fuelling dreams of a better tomorrow. It’s revered in literature, psychology, and philosophy as a beacon of resilience and optimism. Yet I find myself questioning whether hope is as universally beneficial as we often believe. Could it be that hope, so often hailed as a blessing, contains negative consequences we rarely consider? Is it possible that hope sometimes hinders, rather than helps, human flourishing? Consider this, for a start: for hope to exist, there must also be doubt. Hope does not thrive (and is not even needed) in certainty. Rather, it presupposes uncertainty about the future, such that what we desire may or may not come to pass. Doubt, then, becomes…

The Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples of Australia speak several hundred distinct languages, distributed across a vast continent. Although their unique worldviews developed over long ages and great distances, the same folktales, concepts and traditional beliefs can often be found in many different language groups. Academic study of these matters has usually been the preserve of anthropologists, but can philosophy perhaps raise our understanding of Indigenous belief systems? To explore this question, I will be seeking to categorize their culturally specific wisdom under Western, and to a lesser degree non-Western, philosophical frameworks. At the end of the article I will suggest a return to the exploration of the sacred, as this is the foundational basis of Indigenous philosophy. In an introductory essay on Australian Indigenous wisdom, I’m clearly not trying to…

Discomforting Reflections DEAR EDITOR: After reading Edward Hall’s article in Issue 166 about managing migrants, I sat in my warm comfortable middle class Western home with Immanuel Kant’s ethics swirling in my brain. In my fantasy the doorbell rang, and standing outside was a family of immigrants asking to live in my house. They wanted a share of my food, of my shelter, the freedom I enjoyed, and many of the pleasures of life so obvious there. They had some values and priorities different from mine, and others that were the same. They said they would work in my garden to be self-sufficient, but they also wanted a small say in how the household would be run. They wished to contribute to my home budget, but also wanted my assistance…

THERE ARE BOOKS THAT captivate us: when we read them, hours pass like minutes. We immerse ourselves in them completely, and after reading them we’re different people. This is often the case with great literature, or even a good crime novel; but can it also happen when reading a contemporary philosophical text? For James Tartaglia, Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Keele, and the author of Inner Space Philosophy: Why the Next Stage of Human Development Should Be Philosophical, Explained Radically (Suitable for Wolves) (iFF Books, 2024), the answer is generally ‘no’. He reminds us that the dominant style in philosophy today is one of dry, detailed analysis and argumentation, filled with technical terms that only specialists – and often very few of them – can get through.…

If there is an omnipotent and benevolent God, then moral commands issued by that God would exist independently of our minds or emotions, and so would be objectively real. A moral law would be a fact, much as it is a fact that water is H2 O. But if we take God out of the equation we’re left with the natural world, which provides no such guidance, and when we look across different societies we find a variety of moral codes. This might imply that morality is subjective – that moral precepts are expressions of a cultural preference, or rules set out by the powerful for their own advantage, or mere expressions of feelings (‘boo/hurrah’). The subjectivist case can be reinforced by any genealogy of morality, highlighting the seemingly endless…

Vikky Leaney Vikky Leaney is currently writing up her PhD in mental health, developing a Feminist Biopsychosocial Theory of ADHD. An academic, writer, mum, coach and activist, she supports neurodivergent women and those with chronic illness using positive psychology coaching strategies. Vikas Beniwal Vikas Beniwal is currently pursuing an M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Mississippi, with interests in the philosophy of mind and political philosophy. He cares for animal welfare and environmental sustainability. He also inquires into philosophical questions through art in his leisure time. Nigel Rapport Nigel Rapport is Professor Emeritus of Anthropological and Philosophical Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and Founding Director of the St Andrews Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies. His most recent book is “I am Here”, Abraham said: Emmanuel Levinas and…

When someone asks ‘Who are you?’, it’s tempting to respond with labels, like ‘Asian’, ‘male’, ‘vegetarian’, or ‘student’. These tags are easy to understand, and help others quickly identify us. But such labels only scratch the surface. They tell us about general physical traits, societal roles, or personal choices, but they don’t really dive into the deeper question: What does it mean to be you? Or in general, What does it really mean to be human? Are we just organisms, or is there something more – like a soul, or some other deep basis of our existence? Or are we defined by the relationships we build, our actions, or our potential? Understanding what it means to be human influences how we treat ourselves and others, how we structure society, and…

Pain is one of the most paradoxical aspects of human experience: deeply personal, yet profoundly elusive; intangible, yet undeniably real to those who feel it. For people living with fibromyalgia – a chronic condition marked by widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties – this paradox becomes an inescapable reality. Fibromyalgia is often referred to as an ‘invisible illness’ because its symptoms lack visible signs or conventional markers that medical science can easily detect. This invisibility leads to a significant struggle for validation for sufferers, both socially and medically. Yet the challenges of fibromyalgia reach beyond personal experience, to raise philosophical questions that probe the nature of pain, the limits of perception, and the ethical dimensions of empathy. This article considers these issues, drawing from phenomenology, ethics, and the philosophy of…

Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, lawyer and theologian, is well-known in Iran for bringing religion closer to the people, AmirAli Maleki asks him about Islam and philosophy. What is Islamic philosophy? What is called Islamic philosophy today is a science whose basic principles undoubtedly entered Islamic civilization from the ancient Greeks in the second century of Hijri (750 CE+). And like a living cell in the face of nutrients: the Muslims neither simply rejected nor absorbed it, rather, they digested it – which means that they presented or incorporated the imported materials with the principles and teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah [the official interpretation of Islamic practices and traditions]. Then they put ‘wisdom’ (‘Hekmat’) on it. What does ‘Hekmat’ mean? The word ‘wisdom’ – Hekmat – appears sixteen times in…

As the traditions of Australia’s Indigenous peoples developed gradually and were transmitted orally over countless successive generations, we generally don’t know the names of the originators of their philosophical concepts. We do however know some of the individuals who have taught anthropologists to understand these traditional systems of ideas. David Unaipon (1872-1967) was a polymath: a thinker, author, and inventor who was a member of the Portaulun branch of the Ngarrindjeri people in South Australia. At the age of 13 he left school and worked as a servant to C.B. Young, who encouraged his interest in philosophy, science and music. Known as ‘Australia’s Leonardo’ due to his wide range of interests and knowledge, in his lifetime he took out 19 patents for his various inventions, including pre-World War I drawings…

ROBIN ATTFIELD, AN Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University and a key figure in environmental ethics, begins The Ethics of the Climate Crisis (2024) by laying out in clear, quantitative detail why the climate, pollution, and biodiversity crises require our urgent attention. As he says, the IPCC has warned that we have only until 2025 – this year! – if we are to have a chance of keeping global temperatures to a 1.5°C rise. But the book’s central concern is how those responsible for the detrimental impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution can be held to account on the basis of an agreed set of ethical principles, for the benefit of present and future humans and other species. Having laid the groundwork, we begin to see Attfield’s…

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A man named Saunders, hungry from skipping lunch, stood in front of the food display salivating at the free samples resting on an unattended table. With nary a thought, he popped one into his mouth, consuming it so quickly he wasn’t even aware of the taste. And so, while still chewing, he took one more. Saunders licked his lips with satisfaction, then glanced left and right. The aisle was empty…. He had finished the second without fully enjoying the contrast of flavors on top of the crispy chip. And so, without hesitation, he took one more. With a smile of fulfillment, Saunders now examined the samples lined up on the tray, noting the different combination of skillfully arranged toppings. Perhaps, if he experienced all of the different options, he might…

• Creator of feminist standpoint theory dies • New study: do babies have moral intuitions? • Time travel with chimpanzees Sandra G. Harding has died Prominent feminist and social philosopher Sandra Harding died on 5th March 2025 at the age of 89. Harding was a professor at the University of Delaware from 1975 to 1996, then at UCLA until 2014, where she held the post of director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women from 1996-1999. She was a consultant to several United Nations organisations such as UNESCO, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, the Pan American Health Organisation and the U.N. Development Fund for Women, and she co-edited a chapter of UNESCO’s World Science Report 1996 on ‘The Gender Dimension of Science and Technology’. Harding…

John Macmurray (1891-1976) was a widely respected Scottish philosopher who gained a certain notoriety for his attacks on the philosophical establishment and for single-mindedly promoting a new approach to the subject. He also commanded popular acclaim for his accessible, jargon-free writing, and for his pioneering, wide-ranging radio broadcasts. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell managed between them to match Macmurray for the radicalism of their ideas, and they have secured permanent reputations as leading philosophers of the twentieth century. The same cannot be said of Macmurray, who is now a largely forgotten figure beyond a small devoted following. That is regrettable, because his relevance to major philosophical issues is undiminished, and his insights profound. Macmurray contended that Western academic philosophy had dug itself into a hole. It had taken fundamental conceptual…

What makes a human life distinctively human? Buddhist thought answers this question in a cosmological vein. Herein humans are one among numerous forms of life that inhabit the universe. These categories of life are far broader than those modern biology has to offer us. Each form of life has its own radically different embodiment, lived-world and circumstances of existing. And yet, Buddhist texts stress, the human form of life provides the greatest opportunity for spiritual and ethical development. This renders human life particularly precious. Discussions gesture at a particular freedom available to humans that is simply unavailable to other kinds of beings. In this article I will be meditating upon the nature of this freedom: just what makes a human life so uniquely free? After introducing some traditional Indian Buddhist…

With the Western world becoming more secular, the public are more open to non-reverential depictions of God. In particular, TV creatives are making shows about what God might be like, with a lot of it not positive. He’s often portrayed as uncaring or oblivious to human suffering – although there are shows that portray him as the classic wise and loving deity whom the protagonist grudgingly comes to like. So, what are the most popular portrayals of God on television, and why is he portrayed in these ways? Lucifer Originally a spin-off of the Sandman series written by Neil Gaiman, the Lucifer graphic novels were adapted into a TV show for Fox until that was cancelled, and then revived for Netflix. It ran from 2016-2021, and received eighteen billion minutes…

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