Philosopher's Zone

Philosophy for tough times

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life is hard — disappointment, regret and suffering come with the territory — and if the projections of climate scientists and epidemiologists ar...

Women philosophers in 19th century Germany

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of 19th century German philosophy, we perhaps think first of Nietzsche, or Hegel, and then some other men - but Germany in the 1800s ...

Neofeudalism: techno-lords and peasants

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For many on the political left, the end of capitalism is a cherished ideal - but what if capitalism ended and we found ourselves with something worse...

Obedience

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is obedience a virtue? History is littered with instances where obedience to bad rulers or unjust laws has resulted in catastrophe. But then it's har...

Style wars pt 2: Scandals and hoaxes

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What should we think when an academic Humanities journal unsuspectingly publishes a paper that's been written as a hoax, full of fashionable jargon a...

Style wars pt 1: Postwar France and a new philosophical mode

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of the Second World War, France was in a state of creative ferment that affected politics, culture - and philosophy. A new mode of p...

The predicament of existence

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pain is part of life, and none of us can escape it. And yet most of us feel that the deal is worth it, that the pleasure of life outweighs the suffer...

Mary Midgley, public philosophy and plumbing

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

British thinker Mary Midgley (1919-2018) believed that philosophy should be a public undertaking, concerned with issues that have their genesis out i...

Intellectual humility

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Humility is the capacity for acknowledging that your own wisdom may be flawed, and that your epistemic commitments may be misplaced - but how can tha...

Freedom or liberty?

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Freedom" has become a familiar catchcry in Western democracies, as individuals and protest groups increasingly push back against government restrict...

Philosophy, angst and hope

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does a woman philosopher deal with the challenges posed by conservative, masculinist culture within her own academic discipline? Our guest this w...

Music, taste and AI

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When you think about the music you like (or don't like), what does it tell you about your taste? Do you think you have good taste? And if you do, why...

The philosophy of twins

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're exploring our enduring cultural fascination with identical twins, asking what drives it, and what philosophical questions around self...

Philosophy, disability and the gut

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Digestive disorders are a common source of distress and social anxiety - which might seem to be an odd topic for philosophy, until you start to think...

Pornography and free speech

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The global pornography industry is getting bigger, more mainstream and more nasty - but does this mean it should be regulated? Many feminist philosop...

What are Australian philosophers thinking?

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Australian philosophy has been punching above its weight in recent decades - but does there exist something that we could call an identifiably Austra...

Queer vs the state

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time there's been an ambivalent relationship between LGBTQ communities and the state. Even in liberal democracies, which supposedly exist ...

What is swearing?

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What exactly is it about swearing that gives it its offensive power? None of the standard philosophy-of-language explanations really gets to the bott...

Friendship

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a true friend? Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics outlines certain conditions for virtuous friendship, but he sets the bar high, and ...

Transgender identity and experience

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Transgender is commonly invoked as an identity, but this week we're asking if it is better understood as something that points to experience. 

Gender, gaming and pop culture

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a gamer, you might be interested to hear that according to a new study, female characters speak approximately half as much as male chara...

Richard Rorty and America

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, the American philosopher Richard Rorty predicted dark days for democracy and the rise of a Trump-like figure in the USA. This week, with t...

Women philosophers in antiquity

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you don't know much about women philosophers in the ancient Graeco-Roman world, you have a good excuse. They're known to have existed, but hardly ...

Time in the time of COVID

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the lockdowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people started to experience a strange sense of temporal distortion - time slowing down,...

Stability, security and survival: a conversation with Mary Graham

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Graham is one of Australia's most distinguished Aboriginal academics and authors. In this conversation, she articulates a political philosophy o...

Libertarianism

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Libertarians are hard to pin down – they have a number of seemingly contradictory commitments that we normally associate with people on either the ...

The Cynics

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cynicism is a philosophical tradition that existed for centuries in the ancient Graeco-Roman world. Its influence can be found in the Christian gospe...

The philosophy of biology

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Biology is a scientific discipline, notionally given to the pursuit of hard facts and empirical evidence - so what can philosophy bring to the table?...

Banality, deception and evil

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil" thesis has been hugely influential in moral philosophy, but how well does it hold up today? This week we're asking...

Defining Aboriginality

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The legal definition of Aboriginality is a complex issue, raising questions that have to do with identity, epistemology and politics. And while "ra...

Race, biology and medicine

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The idea that race is a "natural" category, grounded in biology, has long been discredited - and yet it persists in a surprising number of places. Th...

Is there purpose in the cosmos?

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To many people, the notion that the universe has consciousness and purpose belongs back in the pre-scientific era. This week we're exploring the poss...

Power, domination and the ethics of global philanthropy

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When billionaires want to make a positive difference in the world, many of them turn to philanthropy. Which is fine in principle, but this week we're...

Poverty and punishment

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This year's Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme exposed a system that unfairly (and illegally) subjected vulnerable people to stress and traum...

Free will, consciousness and AI: a conversation with Daniel Dennett

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Dennett is one of the world's leading philosophers and cognitive scientists - at 81, and with a new memoir published, he's still as provocativ...

René Girard and victimhood

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The politics of victimhood is a feature of our contemporary cultural landscape - but according to French philosopher René Girard, the impetus behi...

Beauty and AI

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

AI-powered beauty apps are becoming increasingly popular, as people use them to evaluate, rate and enhance their facial appearance in selfies and oth...

The pathology of ugliness

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are plenty of features of our faces and bodies that we don't necessarily like - but does this make them aberrations that require medical interv...

Women philosophers in 19th century Germany

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of 19th century German philosophy, we perhaps think first of Nietzsche, or Hegel, and then some other men - but Germany in the 1800s ...

Police abolition

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What might a society without police look like? For some, the idea of police abolition evokes a vision of danger, anarchy and chaos - but for heavil...

Neofeudalism: techno-lords and peasants

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For many on the political left, the end of capitalism is a cherished ideal - but what if capitalism ended and we found ourselves with something worse...

Friendship

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a true friend? Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics outlines certain conditions for virtuous friendship, but he sets the bar high, and ...

Gaslighting

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gaslighting is the word on everyone's lips right now – in fact, Merriam-Webster named it their Word of the Year for 2022. But what is it about gasl...

Why time doesn't pass

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us experience time as something that passes, or flows like a river - or at least we think we do. Could it be that the sense of time passing ...

Exploring Tourette's

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tourette Syndrome is not well understood, even by clinicians, and it raises a host of fascinating philosophical questions around volition and free wi...

Philosophy and myth

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There was once a time when mythology and philosophy got along perfectly well together. But since the Enlightenment, philosophy has come to regard myt...

Transgender identity and experience

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Transgender is commonly invoked as an identity, but this week we're asking if it is better understood as something that points to experience. 

How philosophy fell in love with language

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Around the beginning of the 20th century, philosophy began to take what's come to be known as "the linguistic turn". All major philosophical questio...

Philosophy for tough times

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Life is hard - disappointment, regret and suffering come with the territory - and if the projections of climate scientists and epidemiologists are co...

Taking politics seriously

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is justice a game? Most of us would say no. But for John Rawls – arguably the 20th century’s most important political philosopher – the answer ...

Gender, gaming and pop culture

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a gamer, you might be interested to hear that according to a new study, female characters speak approximately half as much as male chara...

Exploring the multiverse

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do parallel universes exist? The answer depends on who you ask. Some philosophers and scientists say it's an absurd concept, while others say the exi...

Leadership

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do we mean by good leadership? Leaders in business are generally judged according to how effective they are, how much value they generate for sh...

Bilingual parenting, home and the mother tongue

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Standard philosophical accounts of language present it as a kind of home – a place that we inhabit, and that shapes our sense of self. But what hap...

Philosophy behind bars

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to study and teach philosophy in prison? Andy West has been teaching philosophy in prisons since 2015, and his memoir The Life Ins...

Trans-national adoption and "blending in"

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're exploring the “trans-racial adoption paradox", the feeling of belonging culturally while embodying difference, and the challenges ...

Richard Rorty and America

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, the American philosopher Richard Rorty predicted dark days for democracy and the rise of a Trump-like figure in the USA. This week, with t...

The anti-philosophers

23 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the curious things about the history of philosophy is that it periodically throws up thinkers who question the whole business of… doing phi...

De-extinction, pt 2

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The project of bringing extinct animals back into being is sexy, hi-tech and could confer significant environmental benefits - but at what cost? Som...

De-extinction, pt 1

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gene technology has brought us to the point where it's theoretically possible to bring back extinct animals from the "species grave". But the scienc...

Art and hate speech

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're exploring the idea that art can say things, and do things, and mean different things according to shifting historical circumstances -...

Women and the canon

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Women have always been philosophers, often highly regarded by their male contemporaries. So why are women philosophers often regarded today as second...

Data privacy and informed consent

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ninety-four per cent of Australians do not read privacy policies that apply to them – because who has the time? But the amount of data we all creat...

Women philosophers in antiquity

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you don't know much about women philosophers in the ancient Graeco-Roman world, you have a good excuse. They're known to have existed, but hardly ...

Moral creativity

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're exploring the concept of moral creativity - a virtue that can be useful when it comes to negotiating the grey areas in our modern mor...

Tradition, modernity and crisis in Ukraine

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can learning flourish in a time of war? Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in January 2022, thousands of scholars have fled or been displaced...

The lessons of failure

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As much as we dislike thinking about it, failure is deeply embedded within everything we do and everything we are. From our politics to our bodies, t...

A Buddhist perspective on the ethics of violence

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For philosopher Martin Kovan, the resources within Buddhism provide an analytical means to gain new perspectives on violence. His book is A Buddhi...

On being a minority in philosophy

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What challenges come with being a minority in philosophy? 

Skilled performance and cognition

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When a tennis pro lunges for a difficult drop volley, or a concert cellist rips through the difficult section of a Bach suite, are they thinking ab...

China, Confucius and the courtyard

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For more than three millennia, most buildings in China were configured around a central courtyard. This week's guest believes that the courtyard help...

Values and goals

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The recipe for living well is simple: develop a morally sound set of values, formulate goals rooted in those values, and achieve those goals. But ben...

Pop, philosophy and politics

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When philosophy turns its attention to music, it's traditionally an exercise in high culture. Questions about the nature and function of music are of...

Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You don’t have to be stupid to be a conspiracy theorist. Many people who buy into paranoid fantasies about stolen Presidential elections and global...

Efficiency, productivity and excess

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

These days we’re constantly pushed to be more efficient – at work, of course, but also in our leisure pursuits and even while we sleep. How did w...

Philosophy and children

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Children can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to the getting of wisdom. But does this mean that children are philosophers? And if the answer...

Power, domination and the ethics of global philanthropy

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When billionaires want to make a positive difference in the world, many of them turn to philanthropy. Which is fine in principle, but this week we're...

Bilingual parenting, home and the mother tongue

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Standard philosophical accounts of language present it as a kind of home – a place that we inhabit, and that shapes our sense of self. But what hap...

Owning the public square

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Confusion has reigned at Twitter since Elon Musk took the reins of the company, and one of the most pressing questions has to do with whether or not ...

Philosophy behind bars

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to study and teach philosophy in prison? Andy West has been teaching philosophy in prisons since 2015, and his memoir The Life Ins...

Causation and death

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like death, causation is something of a riddle. The death certificate of Queen Elizabeth II has "old age" given as the cause of death - but given th...

The prophetic vision of Günther Anders

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Günther Anders is the most interesting and important philosopher you've probably never heard of. An exile from Nazi Germany who landed in America in...

How should we treat insects?

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Insect farming, we're told by its proponents, is the next big thing in edible protein production, and it may just save the world. But an insect "farm...

Philosophy and travel

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Modern travel is a commodity: you buy a holiday. But have you ever thought of travel as a philosophical activity? Offering the discovery of new tradi...

Refugees and moral obligation

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Refugees have been with us for millennia, but the modern refugee exists under a distinctively modern set of circumstances. Moral philosophers often ...

How Nietzsche extracts cheerfulness from suffering

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Friedrich Nietzsche is popularly regarded as one of the gloomier thinkers, so people are often surprised to learn that he can be very funny. But the...

Trust and scepticism in a post-truth world

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do we know the things we know? The fact is that most of our knowledge comes down to trust - particularly trust in institutions and experts. But ...

Satanism

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can a religion be non-theistic, with no God or deity at the centre? It's a question that has exercised philosophers of religion for a long time – b...

Housing part 3 - land rights

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Familiar ideas about value, ownership and market economics can obscure the fact that there are different ways to think about housing. This week, we'r...

Housing part 2 - rent

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rent is one of those simple market economy mechanisms that seem very natural, as though it's an organic outgrowth of human society. But in fact, rent...

Housing pt 1 - care ethics

04 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Your guide throThese days we're increasingly led to think of a house as a commodity. But what does it mean to think of a house as a site of care, ra...

Values and goals

28 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The recipe for living well is simple: develop a morally sound set of values, formulate goals rooted in those values, and achieve those goals. But ben...

What's new in death - part 2

21 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If we cease to exist after we die, then is our fear of death a fear of... nothing?

What's new in death - part 1

14 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Death holds a special fascination for all of us - but none more than philosophers, who have been pondering the puzzle of death for centuries. In thi...

Doctors and dualism

07 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

So you’re feeling sick, and you go to the doctor. The doctor sends you off for a range of diagnostic tests, which come back inconclusive. What happ...

Art and hate speech

31 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're exploring the idea that art can say things, and do things, and mean different things according to shifting historical circumstances -...

Simone de Beauvoir: becoming a woman

24 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Simone de Beauvoir wrote that “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”. It’s a much-quoted phrase that appears to speak presciently to mo...

Ubuntu

17 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ubuntu is an African tradition of thought whose ethical orientation is captured in the well-known aphorism “I am, because we are”. But what gets ...

Philosophy in a nutshell: The aphorism

10 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy is often thought of as proceeding via elaborate conceptual systems. But sometimes, a choice phrase is all you need to get you thinking.

The great and the good-enough

03 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We live in a society dominated by the aspiration to greatness, where the ancient ethical ideal of "the good life" is often framed in terms of wealth,...