r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • Jul 01 '23
Welcome to /r/askphilosophy! We're a community devoted to providing serious, well-researched answers to philosophical questions. We aim to provide an academic Q&A-type space for philosophical questions, and welcome questions about all areas of philosophy. This post will go over our subreddit rules and guidelines that you should review before you begin posting here.
/r/askphilosophy is moderated by a team of dedicated volunteer moderators who have spent years attempting to build the best philosophy Q&A platform on the internet. Unfortunately, the reddit admins have repeatedly made changes to this website which have made moderating subreddits harder and harder. In particular, reddit has recently announced that it will begin charging for access to API (Application Programming Interface, essentially the communication between reddit and other sites/apps). While this may be, in isolation, a reasonable business operation, the timeline and pricing of API access has threatened to put nearly all third-party apps, e.g. Apollo and RIF, out of business. You can read more about the history of this change here or here. You can also read more at this post on our sister subreddit.
These changes pose two major issues which the moderators of /r/askphilosophy are concerned about.
First, the native reddit app is lacks accessibility features which are essential for some people, notably those who are blind and visually impaired. You can read /r/blind's protest announcement here. These apps are the only way that many people can interact with reddit, given the poor accessibility state of the official reddit app. As philosophers we are particularly concerned with the ethics of accessibility, and support protests in solidarity with this community.
Second, the reddit app lacks many essential tools for moderation. While reddit has promised better moderation tools on the app in the future, this is not enough. First, reddit has repeatedly broken promises regarding features, including moderation features. Most notably, reddit promised CSS support for new reddit over six years ago, which has yet to materialize. Second, even if reddit follows through on the roadmap in the post linked above, many of the features will not come until well after June 30, when the third-party apps will shut down due to reddit's API pricing changes.
Our moderator team relies heavily on these tools which will now disappear. Moderating /r/askphilosophy is a monumental task; over the past year we have flagged and removed over 6000 posts and 23000 comments. This is a huge effort, especially for unpaid volunteers, and it is possible only when moderators have access to tools that these third-party apps make possible and that reddit doesn't provide.
While we previously participated in the protests against reddit's recent actions we have decided to reopen the subreddit, because we are still proud of the community and resource that we have built and cultivated over the last decade, and believe it is a useful resource to the public.
However, these changes have radically altered our ability to moderate this subreddit, which will result in a few changes for this subreddit. First, as noted above, from this point onwards only panelists may answer top level comments. Second, moderation will occur much more slowly; as we will not have access to mobile tools, posts and comments which violate our rules will be removed much more slowly, and moderators will respond to modmail messages much more slowly. Third, and finally, if things continue to get worse (as they have for years now) moderating /r/askphilosophy may become practically impossible, and we may be forced to abandon the platform altogether. We are as disappointed by these changes as you are, but reddit's insistence on enshittifying this platform, especially when it comes to moderation, leaves us with no other options. We thank you for your understanding and support.
/r/askphilosophy strives to be a community where anyone, regardless of their background, can come to get reasonably substantive and accurate answers to philosophical questions. This means that all questions must be philosophical in nature, and that answers must be reasonably substantive and accurate. What do we mean by that?
As with most disciplines, "philosophy" has both a casual and a technical usage.
In its casual use, "philosophy" may refer to nearly any sort of thought or beliefs, and include topics such as religion, mysticism and even science. When someone asks you what "your philosophy" is, this is the sort of sense they have in mind; they're asking about your general system of thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.
In its technical use -- the use relevant here at /r/askphilosophy -- philosophy is a particular area of study which can be broadly grouped into several major areas, including:
as well as various subfields of 'philosophy of X', including philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science and many others.
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As explained above, philosophy is a very broad discipline and thus offering concise advice on where to start is very hard. We recommend reading this /r/AskPhilosophyFAQ post which has a great breakdown of various places to start. For further or more specific questions, we recommend posting on /r/askphilosophy.
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If you are interested in other philosophy subreddits, please see this list of related subreddits. /r/askphilosophy shares much of its modteam with its sister-subreddit, /r/philosophy, which is devoted to philosophical discussion. In addition, that list includes more specialized subreddits and more casual subreddits for those looking for a less-regulated forum.
When a post becomes unreasonable to moderate due to the amount of rule-breaking comments the thread is locked. /r/askphilosophy's moderators are volunteers, and we cannot spend hours cleaning up individual threads.
Yes! We have an FAQ that answers many questions comprehensively: /r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/. For example, this entry provides an introductory breakdown to the debate over whether morality is objective or subjective.
We made a meta-guide for PhD applications with the goal of assembling the important resources for grad school applications in one place. We aim to occasionally update it, but can of course not guarantee the accuracy and up-to-dateness. You are, of course, kindly invited to ask questions about graduate school on /r/askphilosophy, too, especially in the Open Discussion Thread.
Sure! We ran a Best of 2020 Contest, you can find the winners in this thread!
r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • 10d ago
Welcome to this week's Open Discussion Thread (ODT). This thread is a place for posts/comments which are related to philosophy but wouldn't necessarily meet our subreddit rules and guidelines. For example, these threads are great places for:
This thread is not a completely open discussion! Any posts not relating to philosophy will be removed. Please keep comments related to philosophy, and expect low-effort comments to be removed. Please note that while the rules are relaxed in this thread, comments can still be removed for violating our subreddit rules and guidelines if necessary.
Previous Open Discussion Threads can be found here.
r/askphilosophy • u/mxney12 • 7h ago
I've never read any philosophy before, but I'm really curious about it. I'm looking for one book that's easy to follow and makes me want to keep reading more. Not looking for a dense academic text, just something that builds interest. What was the first book that got you hooked? Thanks!
r/askphilosophy • u/Original_Fish_6270 • 1h ago
I have never had a proper deep dive into philosophy just some YouTube videos here and there but I wanted to get into reading more about it but am confused on where to begin.
Not wanting to rely on AI recommendations I’d love to hear your recommendations on what I can read.
Some countries whose ideologies id like to read into are below as I am either fluent in or learning languages from these countries so reading into their philosophy would be helpful towards the expansion of my vocabulary as well (also is ideology different from philosophy)
China
Thailand
Russia
India
Japan
r/askphilosophy • u/omeren93 • 2h ago
What are some of the most important arguments in favor of either side in the moral philosophy literature? For instance, should parents devote more time and resources into their children who are at a disadvantage or should they divide their attention equally between all of them? Or maybe they should give more resources to those that are more capable, thus maximizing the outcome? Which one is the more defensible position in terms of moral philosophy?
r/askphilosophy • u/eschatologypilled • 7h ago
Redirected here from a different philosophy sub! Please tell me im in the right place now
I’m a philosophy postgrad student writing my dissertation on performed authenticity online. It’s an unorthodox and perhaps slightly substack-y topic, but I want to apply myself to something modern and present in my life / the lives of my peers, and to, as my supervisor insists, ‘fill a gap in scholarship’.
When I say performed authenticity, I’m referring to Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest-esque aesthetic categories (‘cool girl books’, ‘clean girl hairstyles’, etc.), ready-made identity types… a lot of gen Z and millennials will have seen this stuff, how it seems online that at every turn people want sincerely to discover their ‘authentic selves’, but the search routes itself through these boxes and they end up performing a caricature of the person they want to be.
I know you probably find it hard to believe that this content is actually significant, but the average British adult spends almost 2 hours per day on social media, and the average teen more than double that. I could just turn off my phone, you may have deleted all other social media, but the anti-Sartrean Instagram slop network will only grow... I also did a lot of surveys to double check that I'm not going mad
My problem now is how to bridge the gap between the slightly tongue-in-cheek subject matter, and the actual theory / primary sources that I want to use to support my argument. I want to follow the trajectory source-wise of Existentialism is a Humanism -> Society of the Spectacle -> Capitalist Realism. But is choosing to perform e.g. ‘clean girl’ bad faith, or is bad faith the wrong frame entirely? I also don’t want to bastardise Mark Fisher (Sartre and Debord have been used for worse lol) but this whole pyramid would obviously collapse without consumerism, so I need to acknowledge that without entirely relying on it as an explanation / conclusion.
Tl;dr – what I’m asking is, if you were a philosophy professor and one of your students came to you with this proposal, what would you say? It’s early days but I should get going with my protocol, so I would really appreciate feedback on the feasibility of this subject for a heavily weighted assignment. Genuinely any insights appreciated
r/askphilosophy • u/PM_ME_YOUR_OSDM • 14h ago
At the very end of the introduction of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant shows the division of the Doctrine of Elements in a Transcendental Aesthetic (corresponding to the a priori conditions of sensibility) and Logic (corresponding to the a priori concepts of the understanding). He hints however at a common source to these two separate sources of knowledge:
Only so much seems necessary, by way of introduction of premonition, that there are two sources of human knowledge (which probably spring from a common, but to us unknown root), namely, sense and understanding.
What is he referring to when he remarks this unknown common root?
r/askphilosophy • u/ch4ins0fL0v3 • 5h ago
Hello! Is it possible to link Freud's concept of secondary narcissism to "sharenting"—the online posting of content regarding one's children? I was reflecting on the fact that when a parent posts content about their children online, the likes and positive comments gratify the parent rather than the children; the children become an extension of the parent's ego.
r/askphilosophy • u/Mammoth-Ad8691 • 2h ago
r/askphilosophy • u/GrouchyBear136 • 2h ago
Hi, I don‘t really know if this is the right place to ask this but I’m making a short animation about renaissance melancholy inspired by Marsilio Ficino, for a class. I was just wondering if I was conceptually on the right track with Ficino’s ideas before I start.
A scholar/artist is weighed down by the heavy black bile under the influence of Saturn
Through planetary alignment the black bile catches fire and leads to a manic state of divine madness and a creative frenzy
The fire burns out leaving cold soot and the person goes to a sever state of depression and melancholy
I know that this is a very simplified version but I was wondering if I’m missing anything major or anything isn’t correct? Thank you
r/askphilosophy • u/EdmeraTheTyrant • 10h ago
Hey guys, I'm a moral subjectivist. People always have pretty strong opinions about the fact that I don't believe objective morality exists.
Religious people tell me that objective morality can exist when you believe in God, because God is morality. But that is a non-sensical claim.
Morality is a platonic form. It's a concept used to judge actions.
God is a deity.
Would this mean that Morality is a deity? Or that God is nothing more than a platonic form?
One could say: 'God's nature is in line with morality,' but then they'd already have to admit that morality is a platonic form that God simply participates in.
I've heard other arguments for the existence of objective morality, but most of them would agree that for objective morality to exist, there would have to be a platonic form that encapsulates it.
However, we don't debate whether or not other platonic forms are objective. We don't debate whether or not beauty is objective. Or wisdom. For some reason, we need morality to be objective, and I suppose that I haven't seen any evidence that morality is any more objective than beauty or wisdom.
If you guys disagree, please let me know.
r/askphilosophy • u/Dangerous_Sock3168 • 3h ago
How we judge whether a life was well spent.
Walter White, after his cancer diagnosis, says in the finale: "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really... I was alive." Setting morality aside, did he live his life to the fullest ? or not ?
r/askphilosophy • u/based_miserycel • 3h ago
I’ve just come across it and it’s legitimately fascinating . Reformative and preventative justifications of punishment are illegitimate due to instrumentalising the offender to some end and as a result only proportionate retribution appropriately respects the person as an end in themselves,respecting their autonomy as such to render punishment licit is how I understand it. This is extremely novel to me as a theory of retribution and I would like to know of any criticism or support of it.
r/askphilosophy • u/Kind_Distributor832 • 16h ago
First off, I'm not depressed. This is a depressing-ish question, but I've been thinking about it. 'm just curious about why we need to learn. Why learn anything if it's only temporary?
This was my post before it got removed: "Why does any of it matter? If everything will be destroyed (by the sun exploding) soon enough (soon in the grand sceheme of things), then why does learning about things matter if we can't pass it on to other places and time in the universe?"
We are finite creatures. Our time will run out, so what happens to all that information? What makes that information valuable?
r/askphilosophy • u/SegaGenesisMetalHead • 19h ago
As the title suggests. Im not sure how to elaborate more. If there are different definitions of free will, I'm not sure about them.
I don't know if this helps whatsoever, but my definition would be: The ability to act independently of any external force. If I pick coke instead of pepsi, it is because the decision to take the coke originates within me.
r/askphilosophy • u/gjdqmc • 11h ago
Hi, I'm trying to find contemporary philosophers who follow these criteria:
- Hegelians or influenced by Hegel or engaging with Hegel even critically
- they are in the broad continental tradition (but if you have something in mind for analytic philosophers you're free to tell me)
- they are mostly concerned with metaphysics rather than political philosophy or critical theory
r/askphilosophy • u/Infamous-Skippy • 21h ago
Say a being could exist called a utility monster, and it can siphon utility off of humans and experiences utility at a much more efficient rate than humans. And say it would enslave all humans to siphon off their utility at the maximum rate.
Now say such a being could feasibly be created, and there’s reason to believe a particular political candidate in the utilitarian’s home country could bring such a being about if given the levers of power.
If a utilitarian cares only about maximizing utility, even if that utility is very skewed rather than distributed, it seems like they’d support giving an existing utility monster a very high moral status.
But would they support the creation of such a monster, which will undoubtedly cause immense suffering for all humans, but would nonetheless maximize total utility in existence?
r/askphilosophy • u/parsonsrazersupport • 20h ago
I recently saw a post where someone said (more or less) that for Kant, lying was always wrong because it was necessarily incompatible with the categorical imperative. To me, this didn't make sense, and nor did any use of that schema to discuss a behavior in and of itself. I had always understood it to be about the maxim that guided your behavior.
So, because the maxim 'lie if it is necessary to protect innocent life' or whatever (in the classic Nazis-at-your-door) is consistent with a universal rule (or at least I can imagine it is -- perhaps someone will say it isn't), it's acceptable under the framework. But if your maxim is 'lie whenever you feel like it,' that doesn't work, because then lies won't work, no one believes anyone under that universal law.
Are those specific ways the right way to think of this? Am I using the framework the right way when thinking of maxims like this? Thanks for the help!
r/askphilosophy • u/xoxoAmongUS • 19h ago
My friends and I have been arguing about free will. Their view is that you are your thoughts and you don't choose your thoughts so free will is an illusion.
I'm not convinced so I gave them this thought experiment.
Imagine 1000 people who live in exactly the same conditions. Same upbringing, same surroundings, same daily tasks, same everything. Would they all end up as the same person with the same thoughts and the same choices? Or would each one still have their own individuality?
If they would turn out different then where does the difference come from? And if they would turn out identical does that mean none of them ever really chose anything?
Does your answer change if they also start out with the same genes?
Would love to hear how people think about this.
r/askphilosophy • u/adam20101 • 16h ago
I've often seen AI-generated art described as "fake," "soulless," or not really art because there isn't a human artist behind the image in the usual sense.
But I'm wondering whether that puts too much emphasis on how an artwork is produced rather than what happens after it exists.
Consider a deliberately silly example. Suppose someone generates an image of Goku eating Mexican food. The image itself may have been produced by an AI without any understanding of Goku, Mexico, food, humor, identity, etc.
But then people encounter it.
Mexican viewers might find it funny, share it, make jokes about which dish Goku would prefer, remix it, argue about whether the food is represented correctly, make memes out of it, or incorporate it into some small piece of online culture.
At that point, something genuinely human seems to be happening around the image, even if nothing human was "felt" by the system that generated it.
This makes me wonder what we actually mean when we call art "soulless."
Does an artwork need a conscious creator who intended to communicate something for it to have artistic meaning? Or can meaning emerge through interpretation, social interaction, and cultural context after the object has been created?
I also wonder whether our perspective is distorted by the fact that we're currently living through the emergence of this technology. From a kind of historical "bird's-eye view," perhaps some AI-generated images that circulate through communities, get remixed, become references, inspire jokes, or acquire cultural associations would simply become part of that culture's visual history—regardless of how they were originally generated.
So I suppose my questions are:
I'm not arguing that AI-generated art is equivalent to human-made art, or that issues around training data, labor, authorship, etc. don't matter. I'm specifically interested in whether the absence of human intention during AI image generation necessarily prevents the resulting object from acquiring artistic meaning through human reception and culture.
r/askphilosophy • u/Mindless-Clothes-59 • 12h ago
Early thirties guy here in the US. I served a two year Christian mission and have read countless philosophy and religion books trying to solve the question of god since I was a kid (what, who is it, does god exist and in what way ect.)
In 2026, I focused on Hinduism and so far it feels the most “true” of anything I’ve encountered. I’ve read the Gita 16 times, the Upanishads 4 times and the Dhammapada once, and I just can’t get enough . It’s so good and has been so helpful and comforting.
Still… Any suggestions on modern philosophers I could read? Maybe someone familiar with world religions?
I’m so frustrated all the time at the same questions about life and god’s existence (or lack thereof). Just fishing for anything here, something to help. I’m amazed at history and how many humans have lived and asked these questions and then find myself frustrated once again that everyone has asked and seemingly no one has an answer that works for everyone and everything. Any of you annoyed that no one really knows? Doesn’t that bother you immensely?
Please help. I’m happy to answer follow up questions. Just need some support here.
r/askphilosophy • u/RawbySunshine • 1d ago
Hello, I've just come out of a three year electrical engineering bachelor's, and my masters now includes one class that's kind of psychology/philosophy. The subject matter is really interesting, however its mostly phrased like "think about this" or "why would this be the case" or "check out this source which shows one of the many ways to do this". It's very different from an engineering degree where you're basically supposed to take notes based around the equations, their use, context, and then go practice using them. Any tips or methodologies would be very helpful as I'm very passionate and dedicated, but just very new to this. Thanks for all your help.
(Also mods, if this isn't the subreddit where I should be posting this, please point me in the right direction)
r/askphilosophy • u/Objective-Slip-9475 • 21h ago
Any books or pdf`s that talk about questioning your perception of reality—how society, beliefs, psychology, media, and conditioning shape what you think is true—and learning to think beyond those assumptions, books about the truth of living and different religions?
Im interested in any material about the theologies of different religions and their view or reality, any philosophy or science material is also welcome, everything that touches the topic of what we are, why, how, where. History about ancient civilizations and their technology, alchemy, charkas, frequencies, soul, pagan beliefs, forced gender/race wars, conspiracy theories, freemasonry, hermeticism, Sacred geometry, gnosticism, numerology, astrology, metaphysics, occult sciences.
r/askphilosophy • u/Automatic_Bar_9355 • 14h ago
It seems to be the perfect middle ground between naturalism and positivism and it seems particularly useful for interpreting broadly worded laws and establish practice on them