philosophers on

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Israel, Hamas, and the Narratives of Atrocity (guest post)

“The need to stop the narratives that rationalize what is indefensible is clear. How to stop such narratives is not.” (more…)

Proportionality and Responsibility in the Israel-Hamas Conflict (guest post)

What do the “moral constraints that apply to defensive force” imply in a situation as complicated as the conflict between Israel and Hamas? (more…)

Philosophers On Taylor Swift

Music star Taylor Swift is currently on tour. There have been countless recent articles about her, her popularity, her shows, her music, her wealth, her interactions with other celebrities, and even her fans using an app to make fake audio clips of her talking. What has been missing from all this coverage? Philosophers. Until now. (more…)

Philosophers on Next-Generation Large Language Models

Back in July of 2020, I published a group post entitled “Philosophers on GPT-3.” At the time, most readers of Daily Nous had not heard of GPT-3 and had no idea what a large language model (LLM) is. How times have changed. (more…)

Philosophers On The Russian Attack On Ukraine

On February 24th, Russia began an invasion of Ukraine, starting with missile strikes on several locations, including Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and since then has continued its attack via air and ground warfare, despite near universal international condemnation of its actions. (more…)

Philosophers On How the Pandemic Has Changed Us

In this group post, philosophers reflect on how the pandemic has transformed higher education, our everyday lives and practices, and ourselves.
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Philosophers On Space Exploration

Last week, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed its rover, Perserverance, on Mars. It is the latest in a series of human efforts now spanning six decades to physically explore and travel to parts of the the universe beyond our terrestrial home. Scientific and engineering matters tend to dominate public discussion of these efforts, yet..

Philosophers On the Ethics and Politics of Abortion

This year, nine U.S. states have passed legislation that bans early abortions in an attempt to provoke a challenge to the abortion rights protected by the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision. (more…)

Philosophers On a Physics Experiment that “Suggests There’s No Such Thing As Objective Reality”

Earlier this month, MIT Technology Review published an article entitled “A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality.” It was one of several publications to excitedly report on a recent experiment conducted by Massimiliano Proietti (Heriot-Watt University) and others. (more…)

Philosophers On the Philosophy Blogosphere

Five years ago Daily Nous came into existence, joining the amorphous and still growing collection of websites known as the philosophy blogosphere.
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Valentine’s Day Special: Philosophers on Love, Relationships, Jealousy, Autonomy, Respect, Affairs, Desire, & more

I had long thought that the association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love was the creation of the Hallmark corporation, but it turns out it is probably owed to a prank by Chaucer. That prank lives on in the tradition of convincing millions and millions of people to consume mediocre chocolates, exchange intimate messages written by strangers, give each other trit..

Philosophers On The Art of Morally Troubling Artists

The news over the past several months has been full of revelations of sexual harassment and assault by men involved in arts and entertainment and other fields (for lists of recently revealed cases, see here and here). The cases have brought to the public’s attention a variety of questions concerning power, justice, gender relations, privacy, business practices, and ..

Philosophers On The 2016 U.S. Election

Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States Presidential Election. There is a substantial portion of the U.S. population—including supporters of both candidates—who did not think this outcome was even remotely possible. For many who supported Trump, his victory is a glorious surprise. Many of those who opposed him, though, are grappling not j..

Philosophers On Bob Dylan’s Words, Ideas, and His Nobel Prize Win

Yesterday, Bob Dylan was selected as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Dylan is the first musician to win the award, and there has been controversy over the boundary redefining move, as well as reflection on the significance of his work. (more…)

Philosophers On The DNC Leaks

Earlier this month, the website Wikileaks released a collection of over 19,000 emails from seven officials of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). You can search through them here. While Wikileaks will not disclose information about how it obtained these emails, many experts believe that two Russian intelligence groups were involved. The Russian government deni..

Philosophers On Brexit

Last week, a majority of voters in the United Kingdom supported Brexit, the proposal for Britain to leave the European Union. The referendum’s outcome was a surprise to many elites, journalists, and academics, and even some pro-Brexit voters are experiencing “bregret” (aka “regrexit”). A petition has been circulating to run a second referendum, but exercising that o..

Philosophers On the 2016 U.S. Presidential Race

How is it that, at the same time, possibly the most principled and possibly the least principled politicians the U.S. has seen in recent times are both serious contenders for the presidency? How are voters weighing the progressiveness of supporting a woman candidate for president versus the regressiveness of creating another political dynasty? What does the failure,..

Philosophers On Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Spoilers)

The latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, opened at the end of last week. It’s a fun movie. But is it more than just that? I asked a few philosophers who are Star Wars fans to write brief reviews of the movie for Daily Nous. Be warned, there are spoilers in these reviews.

I know what you’re thinking: “philosophers writing about Star Wars? Does it get any ner..

Philosophers On Climate Change

The 21st Conference of the Parties (“COP 21”), a major international climate negotiation involving representatives of nearly every country in the world, and organized through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is currently taking place in Paris.

One of the central goals of this year’s conference is “to achieve a legally binding and univers..

Philosophers On The Syrian Refugees

Since 2011, over 10 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes, and over 4 million have fled their homeland, seeking refuge from the violence and chaos of the civil war wracking their country. The war has reportedly left between 140,000 and 340,000 dead, including (by some estimates) up to 12,000 children. Prisoners, including children, have been tortured ..

Philosophers on Rating People

If you were to be rated—as a person—on a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think you’d get? Questions like that might have been lurking in people’s minds since news broke a couple of weeks ago about Peeple, an app that was pitched as “Yelp for people“. Initially, the idea was that anyone, once they’ve confirmed they know you, could leave a review of you on the Peepl..

Philosophers On Drug Prices

The price of Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a drug that treats the parasitic infection toxoplasmosis and is used in some cases to treat cancer and AIDS, was raised from $13.50 to $750.00 per pill when sole rights to its sale in the United States were acquired last month by drug company Turing Pharmaceuticals. The news brought outrage from all corners, prompting the owner..

Philosophers On The Ashley Madison Hack

Last Tuesday, a group calling itself “Impact Team” followed through on its threat to release data it had stolen from Ashley Madison, an internet service that facilitates encounters between people interested in having extramarital affairs. The data included information on approximately 37 million people who had signed up for the site (see news reports at Wired and Th..

Philosophers On Coates’s “Between the World and Me”

This installment of the Daily Nous Philosophers On series was organized by Janice Dowell (Syracuse).

Introduction
by Janice Dowell

In the midst of growing media coverage of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, as well as increased attention to matters of race in the philosophical mainstream, the arrival of writer and journalist Ta-N..