Issues
Issue 173: April/May 2026
EDITORIAL
The Collective City
by AmirAli Maleki
NEWS
News: April/May 2025
Jürgen Habermas, a crucial critical theorist • Susan Haack, a sage of philosophy and law • On Liberty was co-authored by HTM & JSM — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
ISLAM & PHILOSOPHY
Love & Emptiness in the Sufi Tradition
Medha Ninad Tambe meditates on Rumi, love and self-negation.
The Prayer the Machine Cannot Pray
Adnan Abbasi uses medieval metaphysics to understand modern AI.
Islamic Law, Reform & Philosophy
Oliver Leaman looks at philosophical problems related to basing law on religion.
Life Sacrifice
Yossra Hamouda on the murder of compassion & the act of mass murder.
The Mirror & the Flame
Rebwar Fatah imagines Attar’s & Hegel’s shared path.
ARTICLES
Why Do People Hate Hypocrisy?
Emrys Westacott argues that it’s not usually the hypocrisy itself that we hate.
Is Comedy Good for Us?
Damaris Stock has a laugh with Plato and friends.
A Memetic Analysis of Narratives & Conspiracies
Ignacio Gonzalez considers how memes replicate into conspiracy theories.
In Defense of Idleness
Wendell O’Brien says, ‘Just Don’t Do It’.
The Hedgehog’s Dilemma: A Metaphor About the Challenges of Human Intimacy
Krishna Chaubey explains Arthur Schopenhauer’s poignant thought experiment.
Why Do The Evil Still Prosper?
Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the entrants not included.
Xenophon (c.430-355 BC)
Hilarius Bogbinder looks at the life of the other biographer of Socrates.
LETTERS
Letters
Rome If You Want To • Observing Science • Jack the Possibility-Bearing Dog • Morality or Bunk? • Wagner Was A Pagan • Happiness & The Philosophers • Middle School Misogyny • Race Is Environmental • Evolve Your Progress • Deep In The Sand
COLUMNS
Heidegger’s Ghost
Raymond Tallis wonders where Heidegger’s body went when he was philosophising.
William Paley (1743-1805)
by Terence Green
Philosophers on Skiing
by Matt Qvortrup
Four Roles That Shape Life
Massimo Pigliucci considers persona development.
REVIEWS
The Entanglement by Alva Noë
Luka Zurkic considers how art and philosophy affect life.
Free and Equal by Daniel Chandler
Philip Badger critiques a Rawlsian idea of a good society.
Leaving Nothing to Chance by Carl Knight
Alistair Duff asks if people should be compensated for bad luck.
Nosferatu
Ștefan Bolea considers two very different artistic approaches to love and death.
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Brian Johns goes cosmic.
FICTION
What do I have to fear, have I ever diminished by dying?
by Zahra Rashid
Code of Conduct
J.C. Michaels contemplates corporate immorality and individual responsibility.
CARTOONS
Mike Shiell’s Cartoon
by Mike Shiell
Jonny Hawkins’ Cartoon
by Jonny Hawkins
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Existential Comics
A strip by Corey Mohler about Immanuel Kant.
Ayn’ Goodbye
by Juno Browning