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The Party Without Me

David Rönnegard laments having to leave the party early.

Atheist In A Foxhole

David Rönnegard asks how a committed atheist confronted with death might find consolation.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

Alistair MacFarlane on how a poet’s daughter invented the concept of software.

Nietzsche, Our Contemporary

Eric Walther introduces the infamous iconoclast.

Twenty-First Anniversary Survey

Love and Other Drugs

Brian D. Earp explains how chemical enhancement could save your marriage.

Moral Enhancement

Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson argue that artificial moral enhancement is now essential if humanity is to avoid catastrophe.

Notes Towards a Philosophy of Sleep

Raymond Tallis takes us from A to Zzzzz.

A Hasty Report From A Tearing Hurry

Raymond Tallis has a measured response to numbered seconds.

Addicts, Mythmakers and Philosophers

Alan Brody explains Plato’s/Socrates’ understanding of habitually bad behavior.

Colin Wilson As Hydra

Vaughan Rapatahana examines the many heads of the English Existentialist.

That Shine of Heavenly Light

George Ross shows how Goethe’s masterpiece Faust explored the limits of human reason and foretold the catastrophes of the modern world.

Hawking contra Philosophy

Christopher Norris presents a case for the defence.

Morality is a Culturally Conditioned Response

Jesse Prinz argues that the source of our moral inclinations is merely cultural.

An Amoral Manifesto (Part II)

Our longtime Moral Moments columnist Joel Marks concludes his special column explaining why he’s abandoning morality.

How To Be A Philosopher

Ian Ravenscroft philosophizes about philosophizing.

Why Buridan’s Ass Doesn’t Starve

Does free will exist? Michael Hauskeller reasons about reasons.

An Amoral Manifesto (Part I)

A special extended column from our (erstwhile) Moral Moments columnist Joel Marks.

What Does It Mean To Be Cool?

Thorsten Botz-Bornstein links Stoicism and Hip Hop.

Does Surveillance Make Us Morally Better?

Emrys Westacott asks a probing question.

The Death of Pythagoras

Bruce Pennington tells us how Pythagoras became a has-bean, while another Bruce Pennington drew the portraits…

The Varieties of Atheist Experience

Paul Cliteur asks: if an atheist is someone who doesn’t believe in God, which God don’t they believe in?

Where’s The Evidence?

Michael Antony argues that the New Atheists miss the mark.

La Vie D’Ennui

Colin Bisset is inspired to do nothing.

Angst and Affirmation in Modern Culture

Sam Morris on the existential choice we all face.

Searching For Santa

Sam Morris scatters solstice scepticism over the stories of the saint with the supersonic sleigh.

Minds and Computers: An Introduction to AI by Matt Carter

Nicholas Everitt thinks about Matt Carter thinking about computers thinking.

Daniel Dennett: Autobiography (Part 1)

What makes a philosopher? In the first of a two-part mini-epic, Daniel C. Dennett contemplates a life of the mind – his own. Part 1: The pre-professional years.

Freedom and Neurobiology by John Searle

Richard Corrigan freely ponders John Searle’s thoughts on free will.

An Argument About Free Will

Luke Pollard and Rebecca Massey-Chase dialogue about freedom vs determinism.

Consuming And Producing Culture

Dzifa Benson compares being a producer with being a consumer of pop culture.

Whitehead As Existentialist

Colin Wilson pays attention to Whitehead’s awareness of meaning.

Zizek!

Grant Bartley! investigates the film as a distillation of the man.

Enhancing Humanity

Ray Tallis peers into the future, without fear.

Some say that one of the main differences between science and philosophy is that science makes progress while philosophers go round in circles endlessly discussing the same questions. Toni Vogel Carey isn’t convinced.

No Consolation For Kalashnikov

John Forge considers the moral dilemma of the weapons designer.

The Death of Postmodernism And Beyond

Alan Kirby says postmodernism is dead and buried. In its place comes a new paradigm of authority and knowledge formed under the pressure of new technologies and contemporary social forces.

Action Philosophers by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey

John Snider springs into action over Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s graphic reconstruction of the history of ideas.

Aesthetics and Philosophy: A Match Made in Heaven?

To introduce our art issue, Anja Steinbauer describes the troubled relationship between art and theory.

Performance Is The Thing

Dzifa Benson is compelled to consider the nature of performance.

Phenomenology as a Mystical Discipline

Colin Wilson explores the more provocative side of existentialism.

The Ontological Argument and the Sin of Hubris

Toni Vogel Carey’s answer to the most argued-over argument for the existence of God.

Sapere Aude!

Anja Steinbauer introduces the life and ideas of Immanuel Kant, the merry sage of Königsberg, who died 200 years ago.

Colin Wilson

Colin Wilson is an author, existentialist philosopher and scholar of the occult. He has been writing fact and fiction for nearly fifty years. On the launch of his autobiography, Alan Morrison thought this might be an apt time to speak to the man himself.

Kant on Space

Pinhas Ben-Zvi thinks Kant was inconsistent in his revolutionary ideas about the nature of space and time.

Humanism on the Front Line

Douglas Gearhart calls on philosophers to develop practical moral guidance for soldiers in war zones.

Letter from Antony Flew on Darwinism and Theology

Professor Antony Flew, who is famous for his philosophical arguments in favour of atheism, has contributed these tantalising comments to the debate.

Souls, Minds, Bodies & Planets

The first installment of a two-part article by Mary Midgley.

Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword

Mike Alder explains why mathematicians and scientists don’t like philosophy but do it anyway.

The Alleged Fallacies of Evolutionary Theory

In Issue 44, Peter Williams claimed to have found numerous logical fallacies in the writings of Richard Dawkins. His article has provoked this blow-by-blow response from Massimo Pigliucci, Joshua Banta, Christen Bossu, Paula Crouse, Troy Dexter, Kerry Hansknecht and Norris Muth.

The View from Mount Zapffe

Gisle Tangenes describes the life and ideas of a cheerfully pessimistic, mountain-climbing Norwegian existentialist.

Richard Taylor Remembered

One of the most colourful and engaging of modern philosophers (and of Philosophy Now contributors) is recalled by Robert Holmes, Barry Gan and Tim Madigan.

Sartre & Peanuts

Nathan Radke claims that Charlie Brown is an existentialist.

The 21st World Congress of Philosophy

Every five years, philosophers from around the globe gather to drink coffee and swap ideas. Philosophy Now’s Anja Steinbauer and Rick Lewis were there.

Philippa Foot

Philippa Foot has for decades been one of Oxford’s best-known and most original ethicists. Her groundbreaking papers won her worldwide recognition but at the dawn of the new century she has finally published her first full-length book. Editor Rick Lewis asked her about goodness, vice, plants and Nietzsche.