“Creating individuality, which creates and protects others' individualities is good.” — Zaman Ali This line reflects a central idea in Zaman Ali’s (born 1993, Lahore, Pakistan) philosophical framework, connecting ethics, autonomy, politics, and knowledge. While it may seem straightforward — develop oneself and respect others — it underpins a structured approach to human action and social interaction.

There is a particular kind of philosopher who does not begin by entering an existing conversation. Zaman Ali, born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1993, is one of them. His five books — HUMANITY (2017), ZAMANISM (2019), GOVERNMENT (2020), EVIDENCE (2022), and MORALITY (2023), collectively forming the Reciprocal Autonomy system — do not position themselves within a tradition or argue against one. They begin from a single observation that Ali found impossible to set aside, and follow it with the kind of (...) relentless logical discipline that is rare in any era of philosophy. The observation is stated in his first book and never abandoned across any of the five: everything is different and nothing is the same in the universe. What follows from this — through political economy, political theory, epistemology, and ethics — constitutes one of the most self-contained and internally consistent philosophical systems produced by an independent thinker outside institutional philosophy in the twenty-first century. To call Ali the philosopher of individuality, radical honesty, and the unsatisfied mind is not to impose a characterization from outside. It is to read back from the five books to what drives them. Each of these three terms names something that is present in every book, in every argument, in every moment where the system makes a choice about what to claim and what to refuse to claim. Together they explain why the system looks the way it does — why it begins where it begins, why it proceeds the way it does, and why it ends with an ethical conclusion that is at once confident and modest, earned and open-ended. None of the three can be removed without the system collapsing. All three must be understood to understand him. (shrink)

Zaman Ali is a Pakistani philosopher writing outside academic institutions whose five-book system — HUMANITY (2017), ZAMANISM (2019), GOVERNMENT (2020), EVIDENCE (2022), and MORALITY (2023) — constitutes a sustained and integrated attempt to determine what conditions, epistemological, political, and economic, are required for individual existence to be genuine rather than merely formal. Ali designates the system Reciprocal Autonomy. Its central claim, argued across all five books, is that the individual human being is constitutively particular, that this particularity cannot be coherently (...) denied, and that all adequate political, epistemological, and ethical philosophy must begin from this fact and work outward rather than beginning from collective categories and working inward. (shrink)

Zaman Ali (b. 1993) is an independent Pakistani philosopher and political theorist. He completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Punjab, and between the ages of 24 and 30 wrote a complete philosophical system across five books. Those books — HUMANITY (2017), ZAMANISM (2019), GOVERNMENT (2020), EVIDENCE (2022), and MORALITY (2023) — are registered with the United States Library of Congress.

Post-certainty sovereign individuality is a philosophical position developed by Pakistani philosopher Zaman Ali (born 1993, Lahore, Pakistan) across a five-book system published from 201. The position holds that the particular existence of each individual human being is the minimum philosophically defensible starting point for epistemology, politics, economics, and ethics; that this starting point cannot be coherently denied; and that all adequate philosophy must build from it honestly rather than from collective categories, metaphysical absolutes, or external authorities whose foundations cannot (...) be verified. Ali designates the complete system Reciprocal Autonomy, also referred to as Zamanism. The term post-certainty refers to the epistemological condition Ali examines in the fourth book of his series, Evidence: To Know and Have It All? (2022), in which he argues that complete, objective, certainty-generating knowledge of the kind traditionally invoked to ground moral absolutes or political authority is not available through any demonstrated method of inquiry. The term sovereign individuality refers to his ethical and political conclusion: that the existence of each individual carries sufficient weight, in itself, to ground rights against domination and obligations toward others without requiring external legitimisation. The two terms together describe a philosophical orientation that accepts the limits of certainty as permanent while constructing from those limits, rather than despite them, a practical framework for individual life and social organisation. -/- . (shrink)

Zaman Ali (born January 16, 1993, Lahore, Pakistan) is an independent philosopher whose five-book series constitutes a self-contained philosophical system he designates Reciprocal Autonomy, also referred to as Zamanism. The system is distinguished by a single methodological commitment sustained across all five volumes: to build only from what cannot be coherently denied, to acknowledge openly when that minimum runs out, and never to introduce an assumption beyond what the argument has actually established. This method — which Ali calls the honest (...) minimum — functions not merely as a philosophical position but as a practice that governs every layer of the system, including its treatment of its own foundations. (shrink)

Law is ‘sovereign’, it has been said. Since the poet Pindar expressed this fulminating thought in the 6th century B.C., the whole western tradition, from Aristotle to Cicero, from Heidegger to Schmitt, hasn’t stopped raising questions about the ambivalent relationship connecting law, strength and violence...

This paper presents the main topics, arguments, and positions in the philosophy of AI at present (excluding ethics). Apart from the basic concepts of intelligence and computation, the main topics of ar-tificial cognition are perception, action, meaning, rational choice, free will, consciousness, and normativity. Through a better understanding of these topics, the philosophy of AI contributes to our understand-ing of the nature, prospects, and value of AI. Furthermore, these topics can be understood more deeply through the discussion of (...) AI; so we suggest that “AI Philosophy” provides a new method for philosophy. (shrink)

Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations. Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years. But these benefits seem to be mediated by "mystical" experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern: do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about (...) the metaphysical nature of reality? This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism. Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion: this "Comforting Delusion Objection" to psychedelic therapy fails. While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy. Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is). Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists. Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field. (shrink)

This book is a survey of the most important developments in Austrian philosophy in its classical period from the 1870s to the Anschluss in 1938. Thus it is intended as a contribution to the history of philosophy. But I hope that it will be seen also as a contribution to philosophy in its own right as an attempt to philosophize in the spirit of those, above all Roderick Chisholm, Rudolf Haller, Kevin Mulligan and Peter Simons, who have (...) done so much to demonstrate the continued fertility of the ideas and methods of the Austrian philosophers in our own day. For some time now, historians of philosophy have been gradually coming to terms with the idea that post-Kantian philosophy in the German-speaking world ought properly to be divided into two distinct traditions which we might refer to as the German and Austrian traditions, respectively. The main line of the first consists in a list of personages beginning with Kant, Fichte, Hegel and Schelling and ending with Heidegger, Adorno and Bloch. The main line of the second may be picked out similarly by means of a list beginning with Bolzano, Mach and Meinong, and ending with Wittgenstein, Neurath and Popper. As should be clear, it is the Austrian tradition that has contributed most to the contemporary mainstream of philosophical thinking in the Anglo-Saxon world. For while there are of course German thinkers who have made crucial contributions to the development of exact or analytic philosophy, such thinkers were outsiders when seen from the perspective of native German philosophical culture, and in fact a number of them found their philosophical home precisely in Vienna. When, in contrast, we examine the influence of the Austrian line, we encounter a whole series of familiar and unfamiliar links to the characteristic concerns of more recent philosophy of the analytic sort. As Michael Dummett points out in his Origins of Analytic Philosophy, the newly fashionable habit of referring to analytic philosophy as "Anglo-American" is in this light a "grave historical distortion". If, he says, we take into account the historical context in which analytic philosophy developed, then such philosophy "could at least as well be called "Anglo-Austrian" (1988, p. 7). Much valuable scholarly work has been done on the thinking of Husserl and Wittgenstein, Mach and the Vienna Circle. The central axis of Austrian philosophy, however, which as I hope to show in what follows is constituted by the work of Brentano and his school, is still rather poorly understood. Work on Meinong or Twardowski by contemporary philosophers still standardly rests upon simplified and often confused renderings of a few favoured theses taken out of context. Little attention is paid to original sources, and little effort is devoted to establishing what the problems were by which the Austrian philosophers in general were exercised -- in spite of the fact that many of these same problems have once more become important as a result of the contemporary burgeoning of interest on the part of philosophers in problems in the field of cognitive science. (shrink)

Philosophy of immunology is a subfield of philosophy of biology dealing with ontological and epistemological issues related to the studies of the immune system. While speculative investigations and abstract analyses have always been part of immune theorizing, until recently philosophers have largely ignored immunology. Yet the implications for understanding the philosophical basis of organismal functions framed by immunity offer new perspectives on fundamental questions of biology and medicine. Developed in the context of history of medicine, theoretical biology, and (...) medical anthropology, philosophy of immunology differs from these related branches of study in its focus on traditional philosophical questions concerning identity, individuality, ecology, cognition, scientific methodology and theory construction. This broad agenda derives from immunology’s multifaceted research program that has developed from its initial clinical challenges of host defense, transplantation, autoimmunity, tumor immunology, and allergy. In addition to these well-established research areas, immunity is now understood to play a central role in other physiological functions, development, ecology, and evolutionary mechanics. Holding together these diverse domains of inquiry lie philosophical commitments oriented by organismal identity. In this regard, pertinent issues are raised concerning cognition (organization of immune perception and information processing), the character of individuality (framed by the ecological context of immune-mediated assimilation and rejection), and the dynamics of complex systems (understood as holistic systems biology). Indeed, immunology, in the context of cognitive science, evolutionary biology, environmental sciences, and development provides multi-focal perspectives for philosophy of science. (shrink)

Philosophy and Memory Traces defends two theories of autobiographical memory. One is a bewildering historical view of memories as dynamic patterns in fleeting animal spirits, nervous fluids which rummaged through the pores of brain and body. The other is new connectionism, in which memories are 'stored' only superpositionally, and reconstructed rather than reproduced. Both models, argues John Sutton, depart from static archival metaphors by employing distributed representation, which brings interference and confusion between memory traces. Both raise urgent issues about (...) control of the personal past, and about relations between self and body. Sutton demonstrates the role of bizarre body fluids in moral physiology, as philosophers from Descartes and Locke to Coleridge struggled to control their own innards and impose cognitive discipline on 'the phantasmal chaos of association'. Going on to defend connectionism against Fodor and critics of passive mental representations, he shows how problems of the self are implicated in cognitive science. (shrink)

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s literary corpus presents a fertile ground for interdisciplinary analysis, particularly at the intersection of existential philosophy and psychoanalysis. His novels grapple with profound questions of human nature, morality, freedom, guilt, and redemption, while simultaneously portraying intense psychological landscapes. This academic issue centers on examining the internal conflicts of Dostoevsky’s characters through the lenses of philosophical existentialism—particularly the thought of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche—and psychoanalytic theory, drawing from Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Carl Jung. At the core (...) of Dostoevsky’s narratives lies a tension between rationalism and irrationalism, faith and nihilism, individuality and collective identity. Characters such as Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment), Ivan Karamazov (The Brothers Karamazov), and the Underground Man (Notes from Underground) serve as case studies for this examination. These figures embody psychological fragmentation and the struggle for meaning in a world perceived as morally ambiguous or even absurd. -/- The issue investigates how Dostoevsky anticipates psychoanalytic concepts such as the unconscious, repression, the death drive, and the divided self. It also explores how his theological and moral concerns engage with existential themes of despair, freedom, and authenticity. The analysis asks: How does Dostoevsky dramatize the philosophical problem of evil through psychological interiority? In what ways do his characters' inner conflicts reflect broader metaphysical anxieties about the human condition? By engaging with both philosophical discourse and psychoanalytic frameworks, this issue aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of Dostoevsky’s unique synthesis of narrative, psychology, and spiritual inquiry. -/- EXISTENTIAL DILEMMAS — FREEDOM, CHOICE, AND THE BURDEN OF SELFHOOD -/- Dostoevsky’s characters are essentially case studies in existential dilemmas, and he uses their inner turmoil to dramatize themes like freedom, moral responsibility, and the fragmented self. Here’s a breakdown of how these themes manifest in some of his key characters: -/- 1. Freedom as Both Gift and Curse -/- Dostoevsky’s characters often confront absolute freedom—but rather than liberating them, it frequently becomes a source of anxiety, confusion, and moral crisis. -/- The Underground Man (Notes from Underground) is perhaps the clearest example. He rebels against determinism and rational egoism, insisting that man will act irrationally just to prove he is free. He says, “What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.” This paradox—freedom as self-sabotage—illustrates Dostoevsky’s challenge to Enlightenment rationalism and shows how unmoored freedom can become destructive. Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment) uses freedom to test the Nietzschean idea of the “extraordinary man, ” believing he can transgress moral boundaries for a higher purpose. However, his intellectual freedom brings him unbearable psychological guilt. The burden of having to justify his freedom morally and spiritually becomes his torment. 2. The Anxiety of Choice and Moral Responsibility -/- Freedom, for Dostoevsky, is inseparable from choice, and every choice carries moral and existential weight. His characters are often paralyzed by the responsibility of choosing, especially in a world where moral foundations are unclear or contested. -/- In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov intellectualizes the problem of evil and chooses to reject God’s world on moral grounds. But this “choice” becomes a torment, as his decision not to believe leaves him morally adrift. His nihilism is mirrored in the actions of Smerdyakov, showing that ideas and choices have real, often catastrophic consequences. Dmitri Karamazov also illustrates the anxiety of choice. His impulsive decisions reflect a man torn between sensual indulgence and spiritual longing. His choices are expressions of an uncentered self, deeply aware of his moral failures. 3. The Burden of Selfhood -/- Dostoevsky’s characters often struggle under the burden of self-consciousness, a theme he explores long before it became central to existentialist thought. His characters are not simply individuals—they are divided individuals, plagued by internal contradictions. -/- The Underground Man again exemplifies this. He cannot act decisively because he is consumed by the need to understand and second-guess himself. His hyper-consciousness paralyzes him. “To be too aware is a sickness, ” he says—a core existential insight. -/- In The Double, Golyadkin is literally confronted with another version of himself, dramatizing the inner fragmentation of identity. This prefigures what Sartre would later call “bad faith”—the inability to unify one’s self-concept under freedom. Stavrogin in Demons embodies the self completely detached from moral law. His philosophical detachment and emotional apathy turn freedom into a horrifying vacuum—a portrait of existential despair when freedom is stripped of all ethical or spiritual grounding. (shrink)

Many experimental philosophers are philosophers by training and professional affiliation, but some best work in experimental philosophy has been done by people who do not have advanced degrees in philosophy and do not teach in philosophy departments. This chapter explains that the experimental philosophy is the empirical investigation of philosophical intuitions, the factors that affect them, and the psychological and neurological mechanisms that underlie them. It explores what are philosophical intuitions, and why do experimental philosophers want (...) to study them using the methods of empirical science. The positive program in experimental philosophy shares the goal of the substantial part of traditional philosophy that is concerned with the analysis of important philosophical concepts. The negative program has implications for philosophical projects whose goal is conceptual analysis. There have been a number of responses to the challenge posed by experimental philosophy's negative program. The chapter also focuses on the expertise defense. (shrink)

Machery’s book is an effort to show how experimental philosophy can be valuable without the perephenelia of intuitions. I argue that the effort fails.

Many philosophers think that doing philosophy cultivates valuable intellectual abilities and dispositions. Indeed, this is a premise in a venerable argument for philosophy’s value. Unfortunately, empirical support for this premise has heretofore been lacking. We provide evidence that philosophical study has such effects. Using a large dataset (including records from over half a million undergraduates at hundreds of institutions across the United States), we investigate philosophy students’ performance on verbal and logical reasoning tests, as well as measures (...) of valuable intellectual dispositions. Results indicate that students with stronger verbal abilities, and who are more curious, open-minded, and intellectually rigorous, are more likely to study philosophy. Nonetheless, after accounting for such baseline differences, philosophy majors outperform all other majors on tests of verbal and logical reasoning and on a measure of valuable habits of mind. This offers the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy does indeed make people better thinkers. (shrink)

Environmental philosophy – broadly conceived as using philosophical tools to develop ideas related to environmental issues – is conducted and practised in highly diverse ways in different contexts and traditions in Asia. ‘Asian environmental philosophy’ can be understood to include Asian traditions of thought as well as grassroots perspectives on environmental issues in Asia. Environmental issues have sensitive political facets tied to who has the legitimacy to decide about how natural resources are used. Because of this, the works, (...) practices, and researchers in Asian environmental philosophy are exposed to being (mis)used by diverse stakeholders and actors to support political ends not related to environmental sustainability. Two processes are at play at the nexus of the construction of identities in relation to conceptualisations of nature: eco-orientalism and ecological nationalisms. This paper analyzes and exemplifies these dynamics through a conceptual framework that distinguishes ideological and socio-technical explanations of environmental degradation. Finally, to minimise the risks of political misuse, five pathways are presented to carefully help curate environmental, philosophical statements: contextualise, quantify uncertainty and ‘uniqueness’, downscale, confront claims with local realities and literature, and collaborate with researchers from other disciplines. Conjointly, these pathways aim at favouring intercultural collaboration while valuing diversity, thus supporting the development and exchanges in environmental philosophy in Asia and beyond. (shrink)

Experimental philosophy is a relatively recent discipline that employs experimental methods to investigate the intuitions, concepts, and assumptions behind traditional philosophical arguments, problems, and theories. While experimental philosophy initially served to interrogate the role that intuitions play in philosophy, it has since branched out to bring empirical methods to bear on problems within a variety of traditional areas of philosophy—including metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. To date, no connection has been (...) made between developments in experimental philosophy and philosophy of technology. In this paper, I develop and defend a research program for an experimental philosophy of technology. (shrink)

Transcendental philosophy was not born like Athena out of Zeus’s head, mature and in full armour from the very beginning. That is why in both prefaces to the Critique of Pure Reason (1781 and 1787) Kant introduces the concept of transcendental philosophy as an “idea.” The idea understood architectonically develops slowly and only gradually acquires a definite form. As witnessed by the works of Kant himself and of his predecessors and followers, the idea of transcendental philosophy has (...) undergone a series of changes and adjustments compared to the initial plan. In this context, my goal is not simply exegesis and historical investigation of transcendental philosophy, but also to look at it from a systematic and methodological perspective. I examine the concept of transcendental philosophy from the viewpoint of programmatic metaphilosophy. The first part discusses programmatics as a distinct subsection of metaphilosophy. I argue that Kant’s architectonic methodology and the methodology of Lakatos can be used to understand the inception, development and degradation of philosophical systems. In the second part I look at the project of transcendental philosophy and the stages of its development from the standpoint of architectonics. The third part shows that Lakatos’s methodology can provide a detailed insight into the elements of transcendental philosophy, a clear idea of its logic and identify the component parts that can be improved and developed. In spite of the different levels of detailing and epistemological prerequisites, the methodologies of Kant and Lakatos can be combined to achieve a metaphilosophically informed and progressive understanding of philosophical projects. (shrink)

Original in content and approach, Philosophy in Classical India focuses on the rational principles of Indian philosophical theory, rather than the mysticism usually associated with it. Ganeri explores the philosophical projects of a number of major Indian philosophers and looks into the methods of rational inquiry deployed within these projects. In so doing, he illuminates a network of mutual reference and criticism, influence and response, in which reason is simultaneously used constructively and to call itself into question.

The intersection between philosophy and psychedelics is explored in the book “Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience”. The authors aim to develop a dialogue between the two disciplines and explore the various frameworks for understanding exceptional experiences that psychedelics have afforded human beings. The book delves into foundational, ontological, and epistemological questions, including the hard problem of consciousness, the metaphysical understanding of the self, and the aesthetic meaning of the sublime in psychedelic experience. The book provides valuable (...) exploration of questions concerning prevailing metaphysical frameworks, epistemic belief structures, and modes of inquiry, and the effort made by the authors to bring into dialogue multiple dialectics and practices, perspectives and methods is commendable. (shrink)

The Philosophy of Social Science: A Contemporary Introduction examines the perennial questions of philosophy by engaging with the empirical study of society. The book offers a comprehensive overview of debates in the field, with special attention to questions arising from new research programs in the social sciences. The text uses detailed examples of social scientific research to motivate and illustrate the philosophical discussion. Topics include the relationship of social policy to social science, interpretive research, action explanation, game theory, (...) social scientific accounts of norms, joint intentionality, reductionism, causal modeling, case study research, and experimentation. (shrink)

Philosophy and religion were the two important sources of knowledge for medieval Arab Muslim polymaths. Owing to the difference between the nature of philosophy and religion, the interplay between philosophy and religion often takes the form of conflict in medieval Muslim thought as exemplified by the Al-Ghazali versus Averroes (Ibn Rusd) polemic. Unlike the Al-Ghazali versus Averroes (Ibn Rushd) polemic, the interplay between philosophy and religion in the political philosophy of Abu Nasr Alfarabi takes the (...) form of harmonious co-existence. Although, for Alfarabi, religion is an inferior form of knowledge as compared to philosophy, the present article will show that philosophy and religion play equally significant roles in Alfarabi’s virtuous city and that in the absence of either philosophy or religion, the political system proposed by Alfarabi cannot exist. (shrink)

Experimental philosophers have gathered impressive evidence for the surprising conclusion that philosophers' intuitions are out of step with those of the folk. As a result, many argue that philosophers' intuitions are unreliable. Focusing on the Knobe Effect, a leading finding of experimental philosophy, we defend traditional philosophy against this conclusion. Our key premise relies on experiments we conducted which indicate that judgments of the folk elicited under higher quality cognitive or epistemic conditions are more likely to resemble those (...) of the philosopher. We end by showing how our experimental findings can help us better understand the Knobe Effect. (shrink)

Arthur Rimbaud, a prominent figure in the late 19th-century literary scene, is often celebrated for his groundbreaking contributions to modernist poetry. His work, characterized by its experimental form and vivid imagery, embodies many of the philosophical tenets of modernism. This essay explores how the philosophy of modernism manifests in Rimbaud's poetry, focusing on themes of rebellion against tradition, fragmentation, subjectivity, symbolism, and alienation. -/- 1. Rebellion against Tradition -/- One of the hallmark features of modernist poetry is its defiance (...) of traditional forms and conventions. Rimbaud was a pioneer in this regard, rejecting the rigid structures of classical poetry in favor of free verse and unconventional rhythms. In works such as "A Season in Hell" ("Une Saison en Enfer"), Rimbaud employs a prose-poetic style that eschews the constraints of meter and rhyme, allowing for a more fluid and dynamic expression of thought. This rebellion against tradition reflects a broader modernist impulse to break free from the past and explore new artistic possibilities. -/- Fragmentation and Juxtaposition -/- Modernist poets often use fragmentation and juxtaposition to create complex layers of meaning and challenge readers' perceptions. Rimbaud's poetry is replete with abrupt shifts in imagery and tone, resulting in a disjointed yet evocative narrative. In "The Drunken Boat" ("Le Bateau Ivre"), for example, Rimbaud presents a series of vivid, seemingly unrelated images that collectively convey a sense of disorientation and liberation. This technique mirrors the fragmented nature of modern existence, as well as the modernist desire to capture the multiplicity of human experience. -/- 2. Subjectivity and Inner Experience -/- A key aspect of modernist philosophy is its emphasis on subjectivity and the inner workings of the mind. Rimbaud's poetry delves deeply into the realm of personal experience, exploring themes of identity, perception, and self-discovery. His work often blurs the line between reality and imagination, reflecting the modernist interest in the unconscious and the fluidity of human consciousness. In "A Season in Hell," Rimbaud's introspective journey becomes a vehicle for examining the complexities of the self and the elusive nature of truth. -/- Exploration of Identity and Self-Discovery -/- Rimbaud's poetry is marked by a profound introspection and a quest for self-discovery. In works such as "A Season in Hell" ("Une Saison en Enfer"), Rimbaud embarks on a journey of inner exploration, grappling with questions of identity and the nature of existence. The poem is a confessional and autobiographical narrative that delves into the poet's inner turmoil and existential angst. Through vivid and often surreal imagery, Rimbaud articulates the fragmented and fluid nature of the self, reflecting the modernist emphasis on the subjective experience of the individual. The theme of self-discovery is also evident in Rimbaud's famous assertion, "I is another" ("Je est un autre"), which encapsulates his belief in the multiplicity and fluidity of identity. This notion challenges the conventional understanding of a stable and coherent self, suggesting instead that identity is constantly shifting and evolving. Rimbaud's exploration of identity resonates with the modernist preoccupation with the inner life of the individual and the complexities of human consciousness. -/- Perception and the Unconscious Mind -/- Rimbaud's poetry often blurs the line between reality and imagination, reflecting his interest in the workings of the unconscious mind. His use of rich and evocative imagery invites readers to engage with his work on a deeply emotional and intuitive level. In "Illuminations," Rimbaud's prose poems are filled with dreamlike visions and hallucinatory landscapes that evoke the fluid and elusive nature of perception. The modernist fascination with the unconscious is evident in Rimbaud's exploration of altered states of consciousness. His poetry frequently delves into themes of intoxication, madness, and visionary experience, suggesting a desire to transcend the limitations of ordinary perception and access deeper layers of the mind. This exploration of the unconscious reflects the modernist belief in the power of art to reveal hidden truths and to illuminate the mysteries of the human psyche. -/- 3. Symbolism and Imagery -/- Rimbaud's use of rich, often surreal symbolism and imagery is a defining feature of his modernist sensibility. His poems are filled with metaphors and symbols that invite multiple interpretations and resonate on an emotional level. The imagery in "The Drunken Boat" is particularly striking, as Rimbaud conjures a kaleidoscopic vision of the natural world that transcends ordinary perception. This reliance on symbolism reflects the modernist belief in the power of art to evoke profound, often ineffable experiences. -/- Innovative Use of Imagery -/- Rimbaud's poetry is renowned for its striking and unconventional imagery, which often challenges readers to see the world in new and unexpected ways. In "The Drunken Boat" ("Le Bateau Ivre"), Rimbaud presents a series of vivid and hallucinatory images that evoke the disorienting experience of a boat adrift on the sea. The poem's imagery is rich and evocative, capturing the tumultuous and ever-changing nature of the protagonist's journey. For example, Rimbaud writes: > "I have seen the low-hanging sun spotted with mystic horrors, > Lighting up long violet coagulations > Like performers in very ancient dramas! > Waves rolling back the horizons and breaking forth in light." Through this kaleidoscopic vision, Rimbaud creates a sense of both wonder and disorientation, reflecting the fluid and unstable nature of reality. The imagery in "The Drunken Boat" serves to transport readers into a world of heightened perception, where ordinary experiences are transformed into extraordinary and often surreal visions. -/- Symbolism and Emotional Resonance -/- Rimbaud's use of symbolism is central to his poetic vision, allowing him to convey deep emotional and psychological truths through metaphor and allegory. In "A Season in Hell" ("Une Saison en Enfer"), Rimbaud employs a range of symbols to explore themes of suffering, redemption, and self-discovery. The poem's title itself is symbolic, suggesting a period of intense inner turmoil and transformation. -/- Throughout "A Season in Hell," Rimbaud uses symbolic imagery to represent his emotional state and spiritual journey. For example, the recurring motif of fire serves as a symbol of both destruction and purification. Rimbaud writes: > "I firmly intend to possess the truth and to behold the justice of victory! That will, is a ray of light! – Pride is the flame that devours me." Here, fire symbolizes the intense passion and inner conflict that drive the poet's quest for truth and self-understanding. The symbolic imagery in Rimbaud's poetry resonates on an emotional level, inviting readers to connect with the poet's inner experience and to reflect on their own journey of self-discovery. -/- . (shrink)

Proceedings of the 5th conference "Philosophy of AI", December 2023, Erlangen (PhAI 2023).

Experimental philosophy of language uses experimental methods developed in the cognitive sciences to investigate topics of interest to philosophers of language. This article describes the methodological background for the development of experimental approaches to topics in philosophy of language, distinguishes negative and positive projects in experimental philosophy of language, and evaluates experimental work on the reference of proper names and natural kind terms. The reliability of expert judgments vs. the judgments of ordinary speakers, the role that ambiguity (...) plays in influencing responses to experiments, and the reliability of metalinguistic judgments are also assessed. (shrink)

Peter Ludlow presents the first book on the philosophy of generative linguistics, including both Chomsky's government and binding theory and his minimalist ...

I list 200 straightforward facts directly about philosophical matters that virtually all philosophers know and non-philosophers don’t know. We have seriously underestimated the straightforward epistemic accomplishments of philosophy. This leads to a new conception of philosophical achievement and, hence, philosophy itself. I trace the philosophically significant consequences for such a group of facts, regarding philosophical expertise, progress, benefits, and pedagogy.

This paper shows that during the first half of the 1960s The Journal of Philosophy quickly moved from publishing work in diverse philosophical traditions to, essentially, only publishing analytic philosophy. Further, the changes at the journal are shown, with the help of previous work on the journals Mind and The Philosophical Review, to be part of a pattern involving generalist philosophy journals in Britain and America during the period 1925-1969. The pattern is one in which journals controlled (...) by analytic philosophers systematically promote a form of critical philosophy and marginalise rival approaches to philosophy. This pattern, it is argued, helps to explain the growing dominance of analytic philosophy during the twentieth century and allows characterising this form of philosophy as, at least during 1925-1969, a sectarian form of critical philosophy. (shrink)

This paper argues that explicit reading instruction should be part of lower level undergraduate philosophy courses. Specifically, the paper makes the claim that it is necessary to provide the student with both the relevant background knowledge about a philosophical work and certain metacognitive skills (e.g. their ability to reflect on the learning process) that enrich the reading process and their ability to organize the content of a philosophical text with other aspects of knowledge. A “How to Read Philosophy” (...) handout and student reactions to the handout are provided. (shrink)

Serotonergic (or “classic”) psychedelics have struck many researchers as raising significant philosophical questions that, until recently, were largely unexplored by academic philosophers. This paper provides an overview of four emerging lines of research at the intersection of academic philosophy and psychedelic science that have gained considerable traction in the last decade: selfless consciousness, psychedelic epistemology, psychedelic ethics, and spiritual/religious naturalism. In this paper, we highlight philosophical questions concerning (i) psychedelics, self-consciousness, and phenomenal consciousness, (ii) the epistemic profile of the (...) psychedelic experience; (iii) ethical concerns about the appropriate use of psychedelics; and (iv) whether spiritual or religious dimensions of psychedelic use are compatible with a naturalistic worldview. (shrink)

Prior to the nineteenth century, those who are now regarded as scientists were referred to as natural philosophers. With empiricism, science was claimed to be a superior form of knowledge to philosophy, and natural philosophy was marginalized. This claim for science was challenged by defenders of natural philosophy, and this debate has continued up to the present. The vast majority of mainstream scientists are comfortable in the belief that through applying the scientific method, knowledge will continue to (...) accumulate, and that claims to knowledge outside science apart from practical affairs should not be taken seriously. This is referred to as scientism. It is incumbent on those who defend natural philosophy against scientism not only to expose the illusions and incoherence of scientism, but to show that natural philosophers can make justifiable claims to advancing knowledge. By focusing on a recent characterization and defense of natural philosophy along with a reconstruction of the history of natural philosophy, showing the nature and role of Schelling’s conception of dialectical thinking, I will attempt to identify natural philosophy as a coherent tradition of thought and defend it as something different from science and as essential to it, and essential to the broader culture and to civilization. (shrink)

A philosophy with children community of inquiry encourage children to develop a philosophical sensitivity that entails awareness of abstract questions related to human existence. When it operates, it can allow insight into significant philosophical aspects of various situations and their analysis. This article seeks to contribute to the discussion of philosophical sensitivity by adducing an additional dimension—namely, the development of a socio-philosophical sensitivity by means of a philosophical community of inquiry focused on texts linked to these themes and an (...) analysis of them with the help of narratival tools that explain the children’s philosophical moves. (shrink)

Criminal courts make decisions that can remove the liberty and even life of those accused. Civil trials can cause the bankruptcy of companies employing thousands of people, asylum seekers being deported, or children being placed into state care. Selecting the right standards when deciding legal cases is of utmost importance in giving those affected a fair deal. This Element is an introduction to the philosophy of legal proof. It is organised around five questions. First, it introduces the standards of (...) proof and considers what justifies them. Second, it discusses whether we should use different standards in different cases. Third, it asks whether trials should end only in binary outcomes (e.g. guilty or not guilty) or rather use more fine-grained or precise verdicts. Fourth, it considers whether proof is simply about probability, concentrating on the famous 'Proof Paradox'. Finally, it examines who should be trusted with deciding trials, focusing on the jury system. (shrink)

Difference and Repetition: Deleuze’s magnum opus, “Difference and Repetition” (1968), explores the interplay between difference and repetition. He argues that difference is fundamental to reality, and repetition is not mere duplication but a creative force. Deleuze challenges conventional notions of identity and sameness, emphasizing the productive potential of difference. Gilles Deleuze’s “Difference and Repetition” is a seminal work that challenges traditional Western metaphysics and offers a fresh perspective on concepts like identity, repetition, and creativity. Let’s explore some key ideas from (...) this remarkable book: Pure Difference: Deleuze argues that difference is fundamental to reality. Unlike classical philosophy that seeks universal truths, he emphasizes divergence and decentering. Each moment contains unique differences, and these differences shape our understanding of the world. Complex Repetition: Repetition, for Deleuze, isn’t mere duplication. Instead, it involves displacement and disguising. While repetition contributes to generality and thought, it’s the differences within each repetition that account for change and novelty. Concepts and things derive meaning from these differences. Shift Away from Hegel and Marx: “Difference and Repetition” played a crucial role in shifting French thought away from Hegel and Marx toward Nietzsche and Freud. Deleuze’s exploration of difference challenged established philosophical norms and paved the way for new perspectives. The Image of Thought: Deleuze critiques the traditional “image of thought,” which often relies on fixed identities and binary oppositions. Instead, he encourages us to embrace multiplicities, complexities, and the perpetual process of becoming. Asymmetrical Synthesis of the Sensible: Deleuze introduces the concept of asymmetrical synthesis, emphasizing the interplay between perception and affect. Reality is a dynamic, ever-changing process, not a static being. Copies are never identical; they’re something new. “Difference and Repetition” invites us to rethink how we perceive reality, emphasizing creativity, multiplicity, and the constant flux of existence. Deleuze’s work continues to inspire thinkers across disciplines, bridging philosophy with art, literature, and mysticism. (shrink)

What is a game? What are we doing when we play a game? What is the value of playing games? Several different philosophical subdisciplines have attempted to answer these questions using very distinctive frameworks. Some have approached games as something like a text, deploying theoretical frameworks from the study of narrative, fiction, and rhetoric to interrogate games for their representational content. Others have approached games as artworks and asked questions about the authorship of games, about the ontology of the work (...) and its performance. Yet others, from the philosophy of sport, have focused on normative issues of fairness, rule application, and competition. The primary purpose of this article is to provide an overview of several different philosophical approaches to games and, hopefully, demonstrate the relevance and value of the different approaches to each other. Early academic attempts to cope with games tried to treat games as a subtype of narrative and to interpret games exactly as one might interpret a static, linear narrative. A faction of game studies, self-described as “ludologists,” argued that games were a substantially novel form and could not be treated with traditional tools for narrative analysis. In traditional narrative, an audience is told and interprets the story, where in a game, the player enacts and creates the story. Since that early debate, theorists have attempted to offer more nuanced accounts of how games might achieve similar ends to more traditional texts. For example, games might be seen as a novel type of fiction, which uses interactive techniques to achieve immersion in a fictional world. Alternately, games might be seen as a new way to represent causal systems, and so a new way to criticize social and political entities. Work from contemporary analytic philosophy of art has, on the other hand, asked questions whether games could be artworks and, if so, what kind. Much of this debate has concerned the precise nature of the artwork, and the relationship between the artist and the audience. Some have claimed that the audience is a cocreator of the artwork, and so games are a uniquely unfinished and cooperative art form. Others have claimed that, instead, the audience does not help create the artwork; rather, interacting with the artwork is how an audience member appreciates the artist's finished production. Other streams of work have focused less on the game as a text or work, and more on game play as a kind of activity. One common view is that game play occurs in a “magic circle.” Inside the magic circle, players take on new roles, follow different rules, and actions have different meanings. Actions inside the magic circle do not have their usual consequences for the rest of life. Enemies of the magic circle view have claimed that the view ignores the deep integration of game life from ordinary life and point to gambling, gold farming, and the status effects of sports. Philosophers of sport, on the other hand, have approached games with an entirely different framework. This has lead into investigations about the normative nature of games—what guides the applications of rules and how those rules might be applied, interpreted, or even changed. Furthermore, they have investigated games as social practices and as forms of life. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect (and probabilistic causation) in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson proved by applying Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity to what has already been scientifically verified about spin measurement correlations observed in entangled particle pairs that cause and effect (and probabilistic causation) in physics are not real. A recent experiment performed at the European (...) X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (XFEL) indicates that a pre-existing actual real random quantum state impacts a measurement contrary to the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics. The scientific conclusion that Ground State Fluctuations (“GSFs”) are a real and pre-existing property of a molecule implies that an actual quantum reality, probabilistic in nature, must exist before the act of measurement. This presents a direct experimental challenge to the notion that observation creates a definite state from a superposition of possibilities under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Consequently, one should not rely on the supposed instantaneous collapse of the wave function to attempt to explain the non-local correlations observed in quantum entangled particles. Such spooky action at a distance cannot be explained by a local causal mechanism due to speed of light limitations. This leaves only the superdeterministic explanation that the inherently random perturbations of the molecule over time must simply exist as they appear and are uncovered by measurement or observation in a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect (and probabilistic causation) in physics. The recent European XFEL experiment just gave a huge verified scientific boost to the truth of Dr. Hansson’s version of superdeterminism upon which the philosophy of superdeterminism is based. (shrink)

In recent years, philosophy of science has witnessed a significant increase in attention directed toward the field’s social relevance. This is demonstrated by the formation of societies with related agendas, the organization of research symposia, and an uptick in work on topics of immediate public interest. The collection of papers that follows results from one such event: a 3-day colloquium on the subject of socially engaged philosophy of science (SEPOS) held at the University of Cincinnati in October 2012. (...) In this introduction, we first survey the recent history of philosophy of science’s social involvement (or lack thereof) and contrast this with the much greater social involvement of the sciences themselves. Next, we argue that the field of philosophy of science bears a special responsibility to contribute to public welfare. We then introduce as a term of art “SEPOS” and articulate what we take to be distinctive about social engagement, with reference to the articles in this collection as exemplars. Finally, we survey the current state of social engagement in philosophy of science and suggest some practical steps for individuals and institutions to support this trajectory. (shrink)

Political philosophy is having a methodological moment. Driven by long-standing frustrations at the fragmentation of our field, as well as recent urges to become more engaged with the ‘real’ world, there is now a boom in debates concerning the ‘true’ nature of our vocation. Yet how can this new work avoid simply recycling old rivalries under new labels? The key is to turn all this so-called methodological interest into a genuinely new programme of ‘methodology’, defined here as the careful (...) identification and evaluation of all the different methods of reasoning available to us as political philosophers. This programme would clarify, for the first time, all the many ways in which we might argue with one another, thus making us less likely to talk past each another, and more likely to work fruitfully together. (shrink)

Academic journals and peer review serve dual roles in the academic ecosystem: advancing knowledge and advancing careers. This duality can lead researchers to employ strategic opportunism to game the system through a variety of means ranging from fraud to plagiarism. This paper highlights another strategy that can seem instrumentally rational in the face of these pressures: bullshitting. With respect to philosophical research, such an approach is especially troublesome because the bullshitter takes advantage of the degree to which philosophical practice, in (...) aiming at understanding, relies on the principle of charity. As I demonstrate in this paper, this extension of charity to others is not just something we do for moral reasons, it has an important epistemic purpose as well, one closely tied to an epistemic aim of philosophy. In undermining charity, the bullshitter undermines the philosophical enterprise itself. Bullshit philosophical inquiry thus risks leaving us both morally and epistemically worse off. (shrink)

Logic in Buddhist Philosophy concerns the systematic study of anumāna (often translated as inference) as developed by Dignāga (480-540 c.e.) and Dharmakīti (600-660 c.e.). Buddhist logicians think of inference as an instrument of knowledge (pramāṇa) and, thus, logic is considered to constitute part of epistemology in the Buddhist tradition. According to the prevalent 20th and early 21st century ‘Western’ conception of logic, however, logical study is the formal study of arguments. If we understand the nature of logic to be (...) formal, it is difficult to see what bearing logic has on knowledge. In this paper, by weaving together the main threads of thought that are salient in Dignāga’s and Dharmakīti’s texts, I shall re-conceive the nature of logic in the context of epistemology and demarcate the logical part of epistemology which can be recognised as logic. I shall demonstrate that we can recognise the logical significance of inference as understood by Buddhist logicians despite the fact that its logical significance lies within the context of knowledge. (shrink)

Samkhya Philosophy: The Ancient Wisdom for Attaining Profound Tranquillity and Deep Peace Samkhya philosophy, one of the six orthodox systems of Indian thought, offers a profound framework for achieving tranquillity and deep peace through self-realization and liberation. Rooted in ancient Vedic traditions, Samkhya provides a dualistic metaphysics, distinguishing between Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (matter), and elucidates the path to transcend suffering by understanding their interplay. This paper explores Samkhya’s core principles, including the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas), the (...) twenty-five tattvas (elements of existence), and the process of discriminative knowledge (viveka). By discerning the eternal Purusha from the transient Prakriti, individuals can attain kaivalya (liberation), a state of profound peace free from material entanglements. The philosophy’s emphasis on introspection, meditation, and self-awareness aligns with modern mindfulness practices, making it relevant for contemporary seekers of inner calm. This study highlights how Samkhya’s timeless wisdom fosters mental clarity, emotional balance, and spiritual freedom, offering practical insights for navigating life’s complexities. By integrating its teachings, individuals can cultivate enduring tranquillity, transcending the fluctuations of the material world. (shrink)

La philosophie de Platon s'inscrit dans la lignée des présocratiques, des sophistes et des traditions artistiques qui sous-tendent l'éducation grecque, dans un cadre nouveau, défini par la dialectique et la théorie des Idées. Pour Platon, la connaissance est une activité de l'âme, affectée par des objets sensibles, et par des processus internes. Le platonisme a ses origines dans la philosophie de Platon, bien qu'il ne doive pas être confondu avec elle. Selon le platonisme, il existe des objets abstraits (une notion (...) différente de celle de la philosophie moderne qui existe dans un autre domaine distinct à la fois du monde sensible externe et du monde interne de la conscience, et est à l'opposé du nominalisme). Une distinction essentielle pour Platon dans sa philosophie est la théorie des Formes, la distinction entre la réalité perceptible mais inintelligible (science) et la réalité imperceptible mais intelligible (mathématiques). La géométrie était la principale motivation de Platon, ce qui montre l'influence de Pythagore. Les formes sont des archétypes parfaits dont les objets réels sont des copies imparfaites. -/- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12629.70883. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. The philosophy of superdeterminism is a Western philosophy that disproves the foundations of Eastern philosophy. Without (...) cause and effect in physics, the Eastern philosophical concepts of karma, reincarnation, impermanence, interconnectedness, non-duality, and individual freedom are false. There is simply no basis in scientific fact under Dr. Hansson’s version of superdeterminism to accept Eastern philosophy as true. (shrink)

I outline the theoretical framework of, and three research programs within American speculative philosophy of science during the period 1900-1931. One program applies verificationism to research in psychology, one investigates the methodology of research programs, and one analyses scientific explanation and other scientific concepts. The primary sources for my outline are works by Morris Raphael Cohen, Grace Andrus de Laguna, Theodore de Laguna, Edgar Arthur Singer Jr., Harold Robert Smart, and Marie Collins Swabey. I also use my outline to (...) provide a partial comparison of American speculative philosophy of science and 1930s logical positivism. My comparison suggests that logical positivism was a proposal for substantially narrowing down and winding back American philosophy of science and was based on positions that were already problematized in the American context. -/- . (shrink)

Bernard Williams contends that philosophy is part of a broader humanistic enterprise of “making sense of” ourselves and our activities, including the activity of science. Whereas the scientific enterprise purports to offer an absolute conception of the world as it is (independently of any local perspective on it), the humanistic enterprise cannot disengage itself from the contingent history of our ideas upon which it operates. While I agree with Williams that philosophy should be more attentive to history, his (...) account of philosophy, from which he derives this conclusion, is fatally flawed, being unable to meet three perennial challenges to any principled defense of philosophy as a discipline: i.e. the questions of authority, incubativity and peculiarity. Those challenges can be met only if we understand philosophy not as a humanistic discipline that is part of the broader humanistic enterprise, but as a distinctively normative discipline that tasks itself with finding answers to explicitly or implicitly normative questions, in contrast to various scientific and humanistic disciplines of descriptive inquiry. In this paper, I argue for the equivalence of philosophicality with normativity, explicate the theoretical and practical implications of the normative account of philosophy, and defend it against potential objections. (shrink)

Teaching philosophy through games is valuable. Games are engaging, thought-provoking, and popular. But many philosophy instructors encounter an obstacle: A dearth of appropriate games. I sidestepped this problem. My students became game designers, creating their own philosophy games. This Game Design assignment enables teaching ‘philosophy through games’ without the professor antecedently knowing any appropriate games. This essay describes how I scaffolded the assignment of creating philosophical games. I explain the assignment’s challenges and benefits, what I learnt (...) from the experience, and how the assignment structure can be adapted to other classrooms. (shrink)