Issues
Issue 171: December 2025 / January 2026
EDITORIAL
Happy Thoughts
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: December 2025 / January 2026
Plato translation unveiled • Prison TV drama takes philosophical turn • UNESCO creates ethics code for neurotech — News reports by Anja Steinbauer, Olivia Gill and Martin Cohen
HAPPINESS
Hedonic Treadmills in the Vale of Tears
Michael Gracey looks at how philosophers have pursued happiness.
Arthur Schopenhauer: Philosophy’s Dr Feelgood
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), the author of The World as Will and Representation, was a profound metaphysician who also advocated basing ethics upon compassion. He was a great philosopher, but notoriously pessimistic, as the following quotations might suggest.
The Good Life Paradox
Matthew Hammerton points out that a meaningful life and a life that goes well for you might not be the same thing.
Deconstructing Happiness
Abdullah Rayhan breaks down ‘happiness’ with Boethius, Kierkegaard & Montaigne.
Ancient Indian Wisdom for a Restless Age
Jahnvi Borgohain looks at a variety of approaches to happiness.
The Necessary Ache
Tara Daneshmand on regret and the courage to choose.
ARTICLES
The Philosophy of William Blake
Mark Vernon looks at the imaginative thinking of an imaginative artist.
The Philosophy of Race
Sailee Khurjekar argues that race is culturally constructed.
Evolution or Progress?
Adam Neiblum asks what the difference is, and why it matters.
What Women?
Marcia Yudkin remembers almost choking at Cornell.
What are the Proper Limits of Free Speech?
Each answer below receives a random book. Apologies to the entrants not included.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Colin Mackenzie surveys the full life of a philanthropic philosopher.
OBITUARIES
John Searle (1932-2025)
Mariam Awwad sums up a very philosophical consciousness.
INTERVIEWS
Peter Singer
The controversial Australian philosopher defends the right to choose to die on utilitarian grounds. Matt Qvortrup recently asked him about it.
LETTERS
Letters
Neanderthal Resurrection • The Employment of Politics • Sore Points • Forced Cogitations? • The Ontological Argument Exists • Is Knowledge Logical? • Is Stoicism Still Relevant? • Aristotelian Ethics, Condensed
COLUMNS
Another Conversation with Martin Heidegger?
Raymond Tallis talks about communication problems.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
by Terence Green
Philosophers on Walking
by Matt Qvortrup
Marcus Aurelius’s Ten Commandments
Massimo Pigliucci studies the Stoic Emperor’s to-do list.
On Tyranny
AmirAli Maleki looks at tyranny from an Islamic perspective.
REVIEWS
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Friendship
Elaine Coburn dips into different understandings of friendship.
Civic Solitude by Robert Talisse
John B. Min ponders temporarily stepping away from people for the sake of political understanding.
Wish You Were Here
Ian Rizzo listens out for a philosophy of absence.
FICTION
“I’m Thinking”
by Dylan Skurka
Bilbo Theorizes About Wellbeing
Eric Comerford overhears Bilbo and Gandalf discussing happiness.
CARTOONS
Jon Carter’s Cartoon
by Jon Carter
Existential Comics
A strip by Corey Mohler about Schopenhauer.
For What It’s Worth
by Juno Browning
Chris Gill’s Cartoon
by Chris Gill
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Owen Savage’s Cartoon
by Owen Savage