# Current Philosophy


## Posts

- [What Do We Mean When We Say Something Is "True"?](https://currentphilosophy.com/what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-something-is-true/): The average person might be surprised to learn there are several ways to understand what truth means.
- [Book Review: Jack by Marilynne Robinson](https://currentphilosophy.com/book-review-jack-by-marilynne-robinson/): Marilynne Robinson’s 2020 novel Jack—the fourth installment in her celebrated Gilead series, following Gilead, Home, and Lila—turns its full attention to John Ames Boughton, the perpetual black sheep and prodigal son of Gilead, Iowa.
- [Bridging the Metaphysical Divide: How Atheist and Christian Philosophers Transcended Culture War](https://currentphilosophy.com/bridging-the-metaphysical-divide-how-atheist-and-christian-philosophers-transcended-culture-war/): In an era dominated by knee-jerk polarization and online echo chambers, public discourse often feels like a zero-sum war of attrition.
- [Survival of the Cynical: Marilynne Robinson on Darwinism as Ideology](https://currentphilosophy.com/survival-of-the-cynical-marilynne-robinson-on-darwinism-as-ideology/): When we discuss evolution in modern discourse, we usually assume we are standing on the firm ground of objective biology.
- [Daniel Dennett and the Evolutionary Solution to Consciousness](https://currentphilosophy.com/daniel-dennet-and-the-evolutionary-solution-to-consciousness/): Hello! Today we are exploring a thinker who challenges the very foundations of how we perceive ourselves.
- [A Note to Philosophy Now Readers](https://currentphilosophy.com/a-note-to-philosophy-now-readers/): If you caught my letter in Issue 175 of Philosophy Now—responding to Jimmy Alfonso Licon’s piece on moral intuitions—thanks for taking the time to look up the site!
- [How Samuel Clemens Went West and Came Back Mark Twain](https://currentphilosophy.com/how-samuel-clemens-went-west-and-came-back-mark-twain/): We tend to treat literary figures as finished monuments—static entities whose worldviews arrived fully formed.
- [BEYOND THE ABYSS: SECULARISM, SCIENCE, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT NIHILISM](https://currentphilosophy.com/beyond-the-abyss-secularism-science-and-the-truth-about-nihilism/): If you mention the word nihilism at a dinner party, the room tends to shift.
- [Objective Morality in a Material World: Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos](https://currentphilosophy.com/objective-morality-in-a-material-world-thomas-nagels-mind-and-cosmos/): When we say that harming an innocent creature is wrong, or that helping a stranger in need is good, what are we actually asserting?
- [René Descartes: The Mechanical Scientist and Devout Believer](https://currentphilosophy.com/rene-descartes-the-mechanical-scientist-and-devout-believer/): René Descartes is widely remembered as the "father of modern philosophy," famously distilled down to a single, inescapable soundbite: "I think, therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum).
- [The Philosopher with a Hammer: Friedrich Nietzsche, the Nazis, and the War for His Legacy](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-philosopher-with-a-hammer-friedrich-nietzsche-the-nazis-and-the-war-for-his-legacy/): Friedrich Nietzsche didn’t write philosophy to be agreed with; he wrote it to provoke and dismantle.
- [Beyond the "Illusionist" Label: Why Dennett’s View Deserves a Second Look](https://currentphilosophy.com/beyond-the-illusionist-label-why-dennetts-view-deserves-a-second-look/): In a past exploration, we looked at the “Dennettian” view of consciousness: a world where there is no central theater and no soul—only a complex, evolved algorithm we call the self.
- [The Cartography of Absence: How We Map the Boundaries of Death (Part 2)](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-cartography-of-absence-how-we-map-the-boundaries-of-death-part-2/): If the first chapter of our historical mapping traced a journey from physical underworlds to the cosmic pull of universal reconciliation, it ultimately left a critical assumption unchallenged: the idea that the soul is a distinct, independent entity capable of detached travel.
- [The Cartography of Absence: How We Map the Boundaries of Death (Part 1)](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-cartography-of-absence-how-we-map-the-boundaries-of-death-part-1/): Every human culture is defined by how it maps the blank canvas left by death.
- [The Architect of the Invisible: How Kant Rescued Reality and Ignited the Romantic Soul](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-architect-of-the-invisible-how-kant-rescued-reality-and-ignited-the-romantic-soul/): History is rarely a straight line; it is more like a series of seismic shifts.
- [Roderick Chisholm’s View of Free Will: The Causal Double Standard](https://currentphilosophy.com/roderick-chisholms-view-of-free-will-the-causal-double-standard/): The modern argument against free will is often built on the impressive, clockwork logic of determinism.
- [From Sun to Shadow: How Plato’s Academy Embraced the Void](https://currentphilosophy.com/from-sun-to-shadow-how-platos-academy-embraced-the-void/): The image most people have of Platonism is one of radiant, almost blinding certainty.
- [Functionalism and the Software of the Mind](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-logic-of-the-ghost-functionalism-and-the-software-of-the-mind/): In our previous look at Daniel Dennett’s work, we explored the "how" of consciousness—how evolution could move from mindless bacteria to the complex symphonies of Bach through the slow accumulation of "competence without comprehension."
- [The Transmutation of Temperance: Ancient Stoicism vs. The Modern Manual](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-transmutation-of-temperance-ancient-stoicism-vs-the-modern-manual/): To the contemporary reader, Stoicism is often presented as a cognitive armor—a "resilience training" for the entrepreneur or a method of emotional regulation for the high-performer.
- [What is Christian Existentialism? The Leap into the Infinite](https://currentphilosophy.com/what-is-christian-existentialism-the-leap-into-the-infinite/): In our previous exploration, we walked through the smoke-filled cafes of 1940s Paris to define the "mood" of atheistic existentialism.
- [What is Existentialism? The Rebellion Against the System](https://currentphilosophy.com/what-is-existentialism-the-rebellion-against-the-system/): Existentialism is perhaps the most enduring "mood" in the history of Western thought.
- [The Professional Dissenter: Raymond Tallis and the Mystery of the "I"](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-professional-dissenter-raymond-tallis-and-the-mystery-of-the-i/): In the modern attempt to map the human mind, there is a figure who stands at the crossroads of every major theory, holding a "Stop" sign.
- [The Relational Revolution: Whitehead and Process Theology](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-relational-revolution-whitehead-and-process-theology/): Today the focus is on Process Theology.
- [The Bifurcation of Doubt: A History of the Skeptical Aim](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-bifurcation-of-doubt-a-history-of-the-skeptical-aim/): To the contemporary reader, skepticism is an intellectual defensive posture. It is the "baloney detection kit" of the scientist or the investigative journalist.
- [Why Christianity is So Attractive](https://currentphilosophy.com/why-christianity-is-so-attractive/): To understand the enduring nature of the Christian narrative, one must look past the institutional structures and examine the underlying mechanics of its primary claim.
- [The Materialist Machine: An Audit of Our Modern Default](https://currentphilosophy.com/%f0%9f%9b%a0%ef%b8%8f-the-materialist-machine-an-audit-of-our-modern-default/): The modern era is defined by extraordinary technical triumph.
- [Everything is Alive: The Metaphysics of Panpsychism](https://currentphilosophy.com/everything-is-alive-the-metaphysics-of-panpsychism/): We have spent much of our time in this series treating consciousness as a riddle to be solved—a mysterious property that somehow attaches itself to certain complex biological systems.
- [The Bit and the Being: Information and the Geometry of Consciousness](https://currentphilosophy.com/%f0%9f%92%be-the-bit-and-the-being-information-and-the-geometry-of-consciousness/): Throughout this series, we have investigated various ways to explain the mind, navigating the tension between physicalists and idealists.
- [Natural Teleology: Thomas Nagel’s Critique of the Materialist Worldview](https://currentphilosophy.com/natural-teleology-thomas-nagels-critique-of-the-materialist-worldview/): Thomas Nagel, Emeritus Professor at NYU, presents a philosophical position that challenges the completeness of the current scientific worldview.
- [Why Everything You Know About Reality Might Be Wrong | Whitehead's Process Philosophy](https://currentphilosophy.com/why-everything-you-know-about-reality-might-be-wrong-whiteheads-process-philosophy/): Look around you. Our intuition tells us that we are surrounded by static, finished objects—desks, phones, and people.
- [The World as a Thought: George Berkeley, James Tartaglia, and the Idealist Reversal](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-world-as-a-thought-george-berkeley-james-tartaglia-and-the-idealist-reversal/): When we began this series seven weeks ago with Alfred North Whitehead, we started with a radical rejection of "dead matter."
- [The Ghost in the Machine: Richard Swinburne and the Case for the Soul](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-ghost-in-the-machine-richard-swinburne-and-the-case-for-the-soul/): Over the last few weeks, we have navigated the busy streets of physicalism.
- [The Real Physicalist: Why Galen Strawson Thinks Matter is Conscious](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-real-physicalist-why-galen-strawson-thinks-matter-is-conscious/): Over the last few weeks, we have navigated two very different maps of the mind: Daniel Dennett’s world, where consciousness is an evolutionary user-illusion, and David Chalmers’ Hard Problem, which suggests a universe split between physical facts and mental properties.
- [The Man Who Made Philosophy Hard Again: David Chalmers and the "Hard Problem"](https://currentphilosophy.com/the-man-who-made-philosophy-hard-again-david-chalmers-and-the-hard-problem/): In my last post, we explored Daniel Dennett’s world—a world where we are complex biological robots.
- [From Bacteria to Bach: Daniel Dennett's Evolutionary Solution to the Mystery of Consciousness](https://currentphilosophy.com/daniel-dennett-evolution-of-consciousness-bacteria-to-bach/): We have been exploring Process Philosophy and its theological application, Process Theology (PT).
- [A Relational God: Why Process Philosophy Demands a New Theology](https://currentphilosophy.com/a-relational-god-why-process-philosophy-demands-a-new-theology/): In our first installment, we established the radical metaphysical premise of Process Philosophy: pretty much everyone assumes the world is made up of enduring objects, and that these objects are fundamentally real.
- [Why Everything You Know About Reality Might Be Backwards: Introducing Process Philosophy](https://currentphilosophy.com/introducing-process-philosophy-alfred-north-whitehead/): I love diving into different philosophical systems.

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