This Day in Philosophy — 9 August: the death of Ernst Haeckel

Darwin's loudest voice in Germany, the man who coined the word 'ecology' and turned monism into a world-view, Ernst Haeckel died at Jena on 9 August 1919.

The Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture goes to Michael Sandel

The ninth winner of the one-million-dollar prize is the Harvard political philosopher known for his work on justice, the moral limits of markets and democracy. The ceremony takes place in Cambridge in the spring of 2026.

Michael Sandel, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer

This Day in Philosophy — 8 August: Arnauld dies, Hutcheson is born

Antoine Arnauld, author of the Port-Royal logic, died on 8 August 1694. On the same day Francis Hutcheson, founder of the theory of the moral sense, was born.

Plato's cave: what does an allegory told for two thousand years actually say?

The allegory of the cave in Book VII of the Republic sets out the difference between knowledge and appearance. Why it is invoked so often in arguments about screens, algorithms and information.

This Day in Philosophy — 7 August: Tagore dies, Goodman is born

Rabindranath Tagore died in Calcutta on 7 August 1941. On the same day in 1906, Nelson Goodman, who rebuilt the philosophy of induction and of art, was born.

Nussbaum's new book: opera and political freedom

Oxford University Press published Martha Nussbaum's 'The Republic of Love: Opera and Political Freedom' on 16 April 2026. Nussbaum reads opera, from Mozart to Verdi, as a field of political thought.

Martha Nussbaum

This Day in Philosophy — 6 August: the death of Theodor Adorno

Theodor W. Adorno, the best-known figure of the Frankfurt School, died in Switzerland on 6 August 1969. Nicolas Malebranche was born on the same date in 1638.