PhilosophyTube, but it's a blog or magazine?
October 23, 2023 4:25 AM Subscribe
I love PhilosophyTube and would love to find similar sources, but in blog or magazine form - I'm getting older, so there are days that long-form video puts me to sleep (sadface) and I just want to read words. Can you recommend blogs/online magazines that apply at least some actual philosophy to real-world issues?
For reference, I'm wayyyyy left-wing, even by Canadian standards.
Best answer: First thing that came to mind is the multi-author Crooked Timber, with the caveat that >50% of the posts are slice-of-life blog entries.
posted by michaelhoney at 5:38 AM on October 23, 2023
posted by michaelhoney at 5:38 AM on October 23, 2023
For philosophy of the arts, Aesthetics for Birds.
posted by dr. boludo at 7:32 AM on October 23, 2023
posted by dr. boludo at 7:32 AM on October 23, 2023
I don't know PhilosophyTube, but would Philosophy Now work? I only know it as a paper magazine, but the site says one can read 4 articles a month for free, or subscribe for full access. I don't think it specifically focusses on real-world issues though, so may not be what you want.
posted by paduasoy at 7:57 AM on October 23, 2023
posted by paduasoy at 7:57 AM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: It's a good question – there are a lot of attempts around by academic philosophers to try to write for a wider (non-academic) audience, but more often than not they end up writing about the particular academic debates that their research is focussed on, rather than addressing the kinds of 'real world issues' that you're referring to. But still, you might get some mileage out of looking under the philosophy tag for Aeon magazine here. nplusonemag sometimes publishes stuff that's in the same vein. The New Statesman also has a philosophy 'column' from time to time, called Agora, here. It has the following blurb "Agora is the New Statesman’s philosophy column: a space for academics to address contemporary social, political and cultural issues from a philosophical point of view".
I'd say these publications all pretty squarely liberal / centrist entities in terms of their politics. (I know people who think of the New Statesman as left wing, but I suspect they don't read it very thoroughly). I'd hazard that most of the contributors probably have pretty generic progressive liberal views, being academics, but some individuals may have politics that are closer to yours than the rest, see e.g. Tom O'Shea's piece in Aeon here.
DailyNous is a cross between a quasi-journalistic news-service for professional philosophers, and a philosophy-metafilter type web forum community, and its editor posts a 'Mini-Heap' on a regular basis, which is a FPP that just has a heap (or mini-heap) of links to stuff online that's got some topical philosophy content in it. Sometimes it's a New Scientist article, sometimes it's an interview with a Big Name, and yes, sometimes it's the kinds of articles that you're asking about. I'd say that most of the other FPPs on DailyNous are probably too much inside-baseball for most casual interests: who's leaving which university and moving where etc. But the mini-heaps might have stuff that seems relevant to you. There's no strongly political tendency evidenced in the heap-selection, so far as I can see.
The London Review of Books sometimes has an academic philosopher writing in it, and these essays are usually pretty stimulating, and (like most reviews in the LRB) go quite a way beyond whichever text is the subject of the review. The LRB has a left-leaning editorial tendency. Some recent pieces by philosophers (I think the paywall allows you to read a certain number for free before subscribing):
• William Davies writes about universities, nihilism and Weber (21 September 2023)
• Amia Srinivasan writes about free speech on campus (29 June 2023)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about animal ethics (5 October 2023)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about grading student work and industrial action in UK universities (16 March 2023)
• Amia Srinivasan 'Andrea Dworkin’s Conviction' (6 October 2022)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about complaints of sexual misconduct (12 May 2022)
The New Left Review's blog, Sidecar, is a very good mix of things, including occasional philosophical things, or things by philosophical writers. Its politics are left wing (perhaps that doesn't need saying).
posted by Joeruckus at 10:09 AM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'd say these publications all pretty squarely liberal / centrist entities in terms of their politics. (I know people who think of the New Statesman as left wing, but I suspect they don't read it very thoroughly). I'd hazard that most of the contributors probably have pretty generic progressive liberal views, being academics, but some individuals may have politics that are closer to yours than the rest, see e.g. Tom O'Shea's piece in Aeon here.
DailyNous is a cross between a quasi-journalistic news-service for professional philosophers, and a philosophy-metafilter type web forum community, and its editor posts a 'Mini-Heap' on a regular basis, which is a FPP that just has a heap (or mini-heap) of links to stuff online that's got some topical philosophy content in it. Sometimes it's a New Scientist article, sometimes it's an interview with a Big Name, and yes, sometimes it's the kinds of articles that you're asking about. I'd say that most of the other FPPs on DailyNous are probably too much inside-baseball for most casual interests: who's leaving which university and moving where etc. But the mini-heaps might have stuff that seems relevant to you. There's no strongly political tendency evidenced in the heap-selection, so far as I can see.
The London Review of Books sometimes has an academic philosopher writing in it, and these essays are usually pretty stimulating, and (like most reviews in the LRB) go quite a way beyond whichever text is the subject of the review. The LRB has a left-leaning editorial tendency. Some recent pieces by philosophers (I think the paywall allows you to read a certain number for free before subscribing):
• William Davies writes about universities, nihilism and Weber (21 September 2023)
• Amia Srinivasan writes about free speech on campus (29 June 2023)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about animal ethics (5 October 2023)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about grading student work and industrial action in UK universities (16 March 2023)
• Amia Srinivasan 'Andrea Dworkin’s Conviction' (6 October 2022)
• Lorna Finlayson writes about complaints of sexual misconduct (12 May 2022)
The New Left Review's blog, Sidecar, is a very good mix of things, including occasional philosophical things, or things by philosophical writers. Its politics are left wing (perhaps that doesn't need saying).
posted by Joeruckus at 10:09 AM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
(suggestion to mods that this askme might properly go under the Category 'religion and philosophy' rather than 'law and government')
posted by Joeruckus at 10:14 AM on October 23, 2023
posted by Joeruckus at 10:14 AM on October 23, 2023
There's a front page post about Robert Sapolsky's newest book, Determined. Sapolsky's Primate's Memoir is a book I recommend routinely - funny, interesting, educational and his Stanford Lectures on Human Behavioral Biology are very much worth your time. He turns up as author or interviewee in lots of articles. MacArthur Fellow, Stanford professor.
posted by theora55 at 6:12 PM on October 23, 2023
posted by theora55 at 6:12 PM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: AskPhilosophers is sort of an advice column where all the writers are academic philosophers.
How do you feel about podcasts? Some (such as Philosophize This!) have transcripts if audio isn't your jam. Philosophy Bites doesn't seem to have transcripts but is good. The Partially Examined Life is kind of like a conversation between a bunch of grad students at a bar, if the grad students were middle-aged.
posted by Comet Bug at 7:52 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
How do you feel about podcasts? Some (such as Philosophize This!) have transcripts if audio isn't your jam. Philosophy Bites doesn't seem to have transcripts but is good. The Partially Examined Life is kind of like a conversation between a bunch of grad students at a bar, if the grad students were middle-aged.
posted by Comet Bug at 7:52 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by eirias at 5:25 AM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]