Want to know what philosophers, those people you pay to think on your behalf, actually believe? David Chalmers and David Bourget recently canvassed several thousand professional philosophers for their views on a range of central philosophical issues. [more inside]
posted by leibniz on Dec 9, 2009 - 115 comments

"Courage is the ennabling virtue for any philosopher," says Cornel West in this clip from The Examined Life, a film by Astra Taylor. Peter Singer talks about the morality of consumption and how we should spend our money, as he did in this NY Times Magazine essay published two years ago today. Given the internecine violence in the Congo, for example, Singer's 1971 essay, Famine, Affluence, and Morality is worth a second (or first) look. The film features several other contemporary philosophers, including Judith Butler, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Slavoj Zizek. Of course, people looking for a more musical version of philosophy, could forgo the film and just watch this Monty Python bit.
posted by cal71 on Dec 17, 2008 - 11 comments

AskPhilosophers what they think about philosophical problems! A philosophical version of Ask MetaFilter. Not much is up yet, but the lineup of panelists is brimming with top-notch academics. Hopefully the site will take off.
posted by painquale on Oct 4, 2005 - 11 comments

Philosophical Powers! The greatest minds of all time now have great bodies to match! Philosophy's (and theology's) greatest superheroes now in action figure form! Thrill to Arrogant Aristotle, Angry Anselm, Dangerous Descartes, Nefarious Nietzsche and more!
posted by The Thnikkaman on Jan 13, 2005 - 40 comments

Jacques Derrida is not.
posted by semmi on Oct 9, 2004 - 38 comments

The Meaning of Life according to various rather famous people (Dennett, Fukuyama, etc). I'm watching the Dennett video at the moment and it starts rather weakly, but, by midway through, is rolling along nicely. With topics like "being good without god" and "the anthropic principle" it struck me as relevant to a couple of recent askmefi threads.
Dennett: [pause] i guess i'll say it again, more slowly...
(oh, and the player interface is rather delicate - give it time to load and click play a few times...)
posted by andrew cooke on Oct 1, 2004 - 17 comments

The Qualifying Exam Meets the Cult of Personality. I did abysmally on Marcel's People test. How 'bout you?
posted by KF on Aug 13, 2003 - 25 comments

The Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild began in 1992 when two students of philosophy found their inner creativity in the midst of a dwindling academic job market. As it turned out, fulfilling gift giving needs proved to be almost as satisfying as probing eternal questions. They offer such items as "Freudian Slippers", "Nietzsche's Will to Power Bars", "Brainy Beanies", and "Dorothy Parker Martini Glasses".
posted by ewagoner on Aug 11, 2003 - 18 comments

Guide for Becoming a Modern Day Philosopher 12 essential techniques.
posted by Voyageman on Jan 4, 2003 - 13 comments

Enough Already With The Journalists - What Do The Finest Political Philosophers Think About Terrorism? There aren't many of them. On the liberal side of things, apart from John Rawls, Michael Walzer [here's a fascinating interview with him]is probably the most original and intelligent pluralist alive. In the above-linked article in Dissent he sets out the questions that we should be asking ourselves right now about terrorism. Something tells me we should be paying attention. But what would our answers be? Or are we too caught up with the banality of columnists and pundits to actually face up to the thoughts of a real political thinker?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 9, 2002 - 27 comments

The philosopher's first visit to the web might be a bit distressing: witness aesthetics.com, ontology.com, and epistemology.com...
posted by tweebiscuit on Jun 14, 2001 - 18 comments

Very thought provoking I would say, but you might want to think about the choices for a minute before you answer. It matches you as closely as it can with famous philosophers. Not perfect, but definitely an interesting site. Has anybody seen others like it?
posted by prototype_octavius on May 8, 2001 - 101 comments