This Day in Philosophy — 20 August: the death of Schelling

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the three great figures of German idealism, died at Bad Ragaz in Switzerland on 20 August 1854. He had taken over Hegel's chair in Berlin.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

This Day in Philosophy — 19 August: the death of Blaise Pascal

The mathematician, physicist and thinker Blaise Pascal died on 19 August 1662 at the age of thirty-nine. What survived was the notes for an unfinished book: the Pensées.

This Day in Philosophy — 15 August: the death of Ibn Hazm

Ibn Hazm, the sharpest pen of al-Andalus, died near Seville on 15 August 1064. He was the author both of a book about love and of a severe defence of logic.

AI companies are hiring philosophers

Demand for people with a philosophy training is rising on ethics, reasoning and safety teams. Luciano Floridi describes the move from departments to technology companies as a 'haemorrhage'.

Luciano Floridi

Burnt Herculaneum papyri read with AI: lost texts of Philodemus come to light

The scrolls carbonised by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 have been read without being opened, using X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence. Some 70 columns of 'On Vices' by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus have been deciphered.

Kant's categorical imperative: can morality rest on a single principle?

Immanuel Kant looks for the measure of moral rightness not in consequences but in the principle of the act. The three formulations of the categorical imperative, and why they are still argued about.

Philosophy departments are closing in Britain: Dundee and Hertfordshire

The University of Dundee proposes to withdraw philosophy as a standalone undergraduate degree from 2027; Hertfordshire is closing its programme outright. Students and academics have launched a petition.