I Left The Theater With A Slight Disturbance In The Force

Philosophers On 'Star Wars The Force Awakens' (Spoilers!)

Out Of Life’s School Of War: What Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

Philosophizing With A Hammer-Modifying Meaning, Rehearsing Perfection

Consciousness: The Ghost in the Machine

Unfathomable Mystery

Vatican: Jews don't need Christ to be saved

Report, which isn't formal change to doctrine, says Jews don't need to convert for salvation, in an 'unfathomable mystery.'

Sam Harris Exposes Deepak Chopra's Religious Woo Woo

Nietzsche and Zapffe: Beauty, Suffering, and the Nature of Genius

The World Within - C.G. Jung in His Own Words

Value To Physics

Carlo Rovelli on Philosophy and Physics

Some eminent physicists, including Stephen Hawking, have been sceptical about the value of philosophy to physics. Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist who is author of the bestselling book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, disagrees.
Photo by Claire Poinsignon

Good Start

Teaching Philosophy To Children? It's A Great Idea

Studying philosophy cultivates doubt without helplessness, and confidence without hubris. I’ve watched children evolve to be more rational and open-minded because of it

Iran - People of the Flames Zoroastrians

Dubious Footing

When Mattering Matters 

Thomas Nagel, Final Outcomes, and Considering Actions on Different Scales

Image: Sisyphus by Franz Stuck

Internalization Of Dominant Instincts

Reflections on the Evolution of Morality by Christine M. Korsgaard 

Photo by Rose Lenehan

Derek Parfit - Full Address

Discussion on 'The Great Philosophers' with Bryan Magee

What Is It For You To Be Conscious?

Metaphors of the Mind

Does metaphor hold the key to explaining consciousness? Radical philosopher Ted Honderich reveals his new theory of what it means to be a thinking, feeling human being.

PHILOSOPHY - Religion: Classical Theism 5 (God’s Goodness and Justice)

Graham Priest On Philosophy Bites podcast

Graham Priest on Buddhism and Philosophy

Graham Priest discusses some key philosophical ideas that emerge from the Buddhist tradition, including questions about the nature of the self, reality, and how we should live.

TruDat!

Don't Hear That Everyday

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Old Babylonian Version, Tablet II, lines 1-239, read by Karl Hecker

Living in the Time of Jesus!

Die Wilde Jagd

Franz von Stuck's Wild Chase and Adolf Hitler

Completed about 1889, Stuck's 'The Wild Chase' depicts Wotan (Odin, the Allfather of the Gods) on horseback leading a procession of the dead. Wotan's face in the painting greatly resembles Adolf Hitler's.

Supernatural Is A Troublesome Word

Reddit: Thoughts On Swinburne's Argument Rrom 'Religious Experience'

Richard Swinburne's Argument from Religious Experience

PHILOSOPHY - Religion: Classical Theism, Part 1 [HD]

'Logical Pluralism' by JC Beall and Greg Restall

Not Reincarnation-Just DNA

Grandma's Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes

Your ancestors' lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain.

Illustration by Allison Mackey

Human all too human - Nietzsche

Uh...

'Yes. The female biologically (has) more potential to show affection and compassion…(her) face should be very attractive, otherwise not much use.'
-Dalai Lama When Asked If His Successor Could Be Female

Beyond Your Comprehension...

The Hollow Men T.S. Eliot How Cultures Die

We Are Respecting Your Way Of Life, Please Respect Ours

'The caste system has taught me that we have not progressed. The world is not a better place. We are still governed by ideologies that should be obsolete—hegemony, segregation, sin, and being pure-blooded, if you will. All societies continue to be influenced by ignorant ideologues who are staunch in their outdated faiths. Does being vegetarian make you a good person even when you refuse to treat another human being with respect and dignity?'
-Rhea Verma, 'My Fiancé's Mother Threatened Suicide If We Got Married'

Choice

'Life is a gift, every soul has a chance at life you see. You learn new things, you experience pain and love, it builds you. Your soul needs to expand, Earth is a scary place, it can either ruin a soul or build a soul but it all depends on that one soul. Earth will try to tear you apart, you will experience torture, pleasure, and hate. You cannot give in to the hate, if you do your soul will become tainted and you will become rotten from the inside out. But...if you choose to love, your soul will flourish and you will evolve into something much greater. Every soul should strive to be as pure as they can be.'
-Oliver

Universalism vs. Nihilism

Ontology In Plain English by John Horden

Forbidden Fruit

Self‐Damning, Morally Tainting Aspect Of Society

Unethical Acts
Winner of The Philosophical Quarterly Essay Prize 2012

'The extraordinary thing about acting is that life itself is actually used to create artistic results.'

-Lee Strasberg

Nietzsche's World

Review: 'Nietzsche On Ethics And Politics'

'...our concern is not with the semantics for ethical discourse to which Nietzsche may be committed, but rather with how his view had changed concerning how ethics fits into the natural world, a world that does not contain any ethical facts or properties..'

-Maudemarie Clark, 'Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy'

To The Other World

'To The Other World' by Karla Ortiz

Rethinking The Significance Of A Lack Of Proof Of God.

I would like to argue the following:

1. There is no logical or empirical proof of God. A proof would be something that gave you complete certainty.
2. However, the lack of a proof of God is understandable even if God exists. God might not provide an absolute logical or empirical proof for several reasons:

• a. If humans are unsure whether God exists, their actions will be more genuine, because they will not act merely to please God.
• b. Uncertainty about the universe might make us more appreciative and curious. We realize how complex life and the universe are, and how long they took to become what they are. It also makes us more humble.
• c. The uncertainty and ambiguity is actually the best case scenario for humans. Death is scary, but it isn't as scary as the possibility of eternal suffering, and even the thought of eternal life of any sort seems terrifying to me. If God exists we have zero control, at all. Maybe God would be capable of completely reassuring us of his/her benevolence, but I fear we might lose our freedom of thought that way. I would prefer living in a world where death seems to be the likely result but there is always the possibility of some unknowable afterlife rather than simply waking up (of course you would have already been there forever) in a life that you know with certainty to be eternal (inescapable).

Of course I haven't offered any proof of God. I do think there seem to be paradoxical things about the universe that make me wonder about God's existence. But if my basic idea is correct that God would choose not to give us any absolute proofs, it makes sense that God might try more to communicate with us through mystical experiences and things of that sort, suggestions rather than proofs. So one might argue that an implication of my thesis is that if one takes the possibility of God's existence seriously, then one should take the possibility of mystical experiences more seriously, and focus less on absolute proofs.

Another possible implication of this idea is that one might take the fact that we are in the "best case scenario" world in terms of simply not truly knowing with certainty what will happen to us after we die, and then use this as evidence that God is good (whatever that means exactly). Of course this would need a lot of work, but it could be part of a larger argument.

-sender21

We Must Find A New Philosophy That Is Neither Realist Nor Relativist

After The End Of Truth

'Instead however of debating the weaknesses of realism and relativism we should recognize that they are both flawed and are unable to account for our ability to make sense of and intervene in the world. Instead we require a philosophy that recognizes the failure of realism and the incoherence of relativism.'
-Hillary Lawson

Jewish Synagogue Burns Down, Mormons Let Them Use Their Building

Temple Beth Sholom congregation to return to Santa Ana home 18 months after fire

'We saw a congregation in a time of need. If we were in their shoes, we would’ve liked it if someone helped us.'

-Stake president Matt Goodman