Ethics

This Day in Philosophy — 13 August: the death of Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor, whose writings on conscience shaped English moral thought, died on 13 August 1667. His defence of toleration was written in the years of the civil war.

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.

Schwitzgebel and Pober: consciousness may not be specific to carbon

A study in Philosophers' Imprint argues that consciousness is 'substrate flexible': it could arise in silicon- or sulphur-based structures that carry enough complexity.

Eric Schwitzgebel, Jeremy Pober

Nietzsche's genealogy: asking what our values are worth

The Genealogy does not set out to refute morality; it reminds us that morality has a history. Master and slave, ressentiment, bad conscience and the ascetic ideal — and the long afterlife of the method, from Nietzsche to Foucault.

Friedrich Nietzsche

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.