This Day in Philosophy

Faraday, Blanchot and Gorz: the day the centre gave way

Faraday was born on 22 September 1791, Blanchot on 22 September 1907. André Gorz died on the day in 2007, with his wife Dorine, by their own decision. Three lives that each removed a centre, the atom, the author, the self-sufficient self; and two lesser names, Ruffini and Potebnia, who did the same to the formula and the word.

Schopenhauer, Williams and Bunge on what philosophy can do for a life

Arthur Schopenhauer died on his sofa in Frankfurt on 21 September 1860. Bernard Williams was born on the date in 1929, Mario Bunge in 1919, Peter van Inwagen in 1942; Savonarola in 1452, and Virgil died on it in 19 BC. Each had a view on how much philosophy can settle, and they do not agree.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bernard Williams

Strauss, Montague, Rose and Piper: what a text hides and what it shows

Leo Strauss was born on 20 September 1899, Richard Montague in 1930, Gillian Rose in 1947 and Adrian Piper in 1948; Annie Besant died on the date in 1933. Four births and a death, and between them a quarrel about whether meaning is something hidden between the lines or something fully on the surface.

Leo Strauss

Who licenses knowledge: Freire, Gilson and Vattimo on 19 September

Paulo Freire was born on this day in 1921; Etienne Gilson died on it in 1978, Gianni Vattimo in 2023. On the same date in 1796 a Philadelphia printer published a letter no one had heard spoken. Four anniversaries, one argument about who is entitled to say what counts as knowledge.

Paulo Freire, Gianni Vattimo

Beardsley, Hayek and the day meaning slipped its author

On 18 September 1944 the University of Chicago Press published The Road to Serfdom in an edition of 2,000 copies. On 18 September 1985 Monroe Beardsley died. Between them they left two arguments that order and meaning need no single authorising mind — and the same date supplies the objections.

Monroe Beardsley, F. H. Bradley

Popper, Searle and Hildegard: who vouches for what we claim to know

Karl Popper died on 17 September 1994, John Searle on the same date in 2025, Hildegard of Bingen in 1179. Thirty-nine men signed a constitution in Philadelphia on the day in 1787. Each answered the same question differently: when someone claims to know, who or what stands behind the claim?

John Searle, Karl Popper

Pomponazzi, Smart, Hurley and Lara: four arguments about the limits of proof

Pietro Pomponazzi was born on 16 September 1462, J. J. C. Smart on 16 September 1920, Susan Hurley and María Pía Lara on 16 September 1954. Four philosophers across five centuries, and one question between them: what can be demonstrated about the mind, and what has to be settled some other way.

David Chalmers, Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, Saul Kripke, Pietro Pomponazzi, J. J. C. Smart, Susan Hurley

Kripke, Eucken and Lazarus: three ways a name gets hold of a thing

Saul Kripke died on 15 September 2022, aged 81. Rudolf Eucken, the 1908 Nobel literature laureate, died on this day in 1926 and was forgotten within a generation. Moritz Lazarus, who defined a people as those who count each other as one, was born on this day in 1824.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Saul Kripke

Carnap, Maturana, Bloom and Agrippa: four attempts to police a line

Rudolf Carnap died on 14 September 1970; Humberto Maturana was born on this day in 1928, Allan Bloom in 1930 and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in 1486. Three of them spent their lives fixing a boundary — of the meaningful, the cognising, the educated. The fourth refused to stand on either side of his.

Martha Nussbaum, Martin Heidegger, Rudolf Carnap, Humberto Maturana, Allan Bloom