Public philosophy and related things
Presentations, roundtable discussion, radio
Watch here for a two-minute overview of Helen's article "Friendship with the Ancients" from Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2025)
Watch here for a ten-minute narrated and illustrated summary of The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (2025)
Watch here for a four-minute summary of my views of what human culture is and what it should accomplish (2024)
Watch here for a 6-minute conversation about philosophical speculations about alien life, Giordano Bruno, Bernard de Fontenelle, Kant (2024)
Watch here for a 7-minute conversation about why biologists should care about philosophy of biology (2024)
Watch here for an interview with Robert Kuhn, where I give a five minute explanation of how cognitive science of religion explains the concept of gods and religious traditions (2023)
Watch here for a short interview with Robert Kuhn, where I give a 9 minute explanation of how do science and religion relate in different religious traditions and with different sciences (short answer: you have to delve into details)? (2023)
Watch here for an interview with Robert Kuhn on personhood in Daoism, Zen Buddhism and Confucianism for a PBS series on philosophy of religion in non-western traditions. This link also provides other videos in the same series (2023)
Watch here for an interview with Gregory Sadler on the state of academic publishing (2024)
Watch here for the Thompson Lecture in Christian philosophy at the University of Dayton, Ohio (2023)
Watch here for a Roundtable discussion with Yarran Hominh and Alex Douglas on philosophy and hope organized by The Philosopher (2023)
Listen here for a Philosophy Talk podcast on my book Wonderstruck (2023)
Listen here for Terrifying Questions podcast on Spinoza's notion of blessedness (2023)
Listen here for a Philosopher's Zone podcast on owning the public sphere (2022)
Listen here for an Overthink podcast on science fiction (2022)
Watch here for a talk on Science Fiction and Philosophy Illustrated: with the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures (2022)
Watch here for a postcast for Damn the absolute! on the topic of religious disagreement (2020)
Watch here for a Seize the Moment podcast interview on the philosophy of science and awe (2020)
Watch here for a podcast interview with John Symons, MANA, a platform for promoting philosophy in Saudi Arabia (2014)
Watch here for a roundtable discussion with Alan Torrance, Kevin Hector and me on experimental philosophy of religion (2015)
Here is a presentation on the argument from miracles, which found its way as chapter 8 of A natural history of natural theology.
Public philosophy pieces
2024 Sprezzatura and wuwei: A Daoist approach to European courtly grace. The Philosopher
2023 Why seek self-realization? Aeon Magazine.
2023 The various literary forms of philosophy. Daily Nous
2022 An archaeology for a better future. The Raven
2022 (with Pauline Lee) How to be useless. Psyche Magazine
2022 The best illustrated philosophy books.Five Books
2021 The Case for alternating in-person and virtual conferences. APA Blog
2020 The necessity of awe. Aeon Magazine.
2020 (with Sameer Yadav). Yes, God can be hurt, but not in the way Trump claims. The Conversation.
2020 How Prince Zuko restored his honor. Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture
2020 (with Johnathan Flowers) A pragmatist philosopher's view of the US response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Conversation
2018 (with other undersigned). You don’t need to know Plato and Aristotle to be a humanist. The Guardian
2018 Xenophobia and misogyny is a systematic feature of power relations. The New European
What can philosophers do?
What can do you with a philosophy degree, outside of academia? I maintained a tumblr blog, Doing Things with Philosophy where I interviewed alt-ac philosophers.
My interviews with philosophers who work outside of academia have appeared originally on the blog NewApps (parts 1, 2 and 3), and have since appeared in short form in The Philosophers' Magazine. They have also been covered in The Atlantic Monthly, and have been translated in Chinese in the online newspaper The Paper.
Blogging and outreach
My newsletter with regular philosophical musings is Wondering Freely.
My blog is Wondering Freely (no longer updated).
I regularly write for the The Philosophers' Cocoon.
I am co-organizer (with Marcus Arvan) of the Philosophers' Cocoon job market mentoring project, which is aimed at providing support for philosophy job candidates who face special challenges, or who do not have mentoring support.
On the Cocoon, I have (co)organized several series to help to diversify the profession and offer resources to philosophers who would otherwise not have access to them. These include:
The Cocoon Goes Global, showcasing the challenges and opportunities that philosophers face working in countries outside of the Anglophone west, including Nigeria, Ukraine, Peru, Argentina, China, Singapore, and Germany.
How to Write Philosophy, a series of blogposts by guest writers to demystify the writing process, aimed at philosophers but also useful for a broader audience
Unusual Teaching Ideas that work, a series of focused blogposts by guest writers with concrete, clear examples of ways to improve pedagogy, with teaching techniques such as paper scavenger hunts, meditation in the classroom, non-conventional discussion formats, etc. Useful for anyone who teaches philosophy
Once out of the Cocoon, a series of guest posts specifically aimed at those who have job security, in the hope that they could help empower others. These will include posts on work/life balance, on activism and how to incorporate it in one’s life, on how to help and support others.
Together with other members for the Philosophers for Sustainability, I petitioned the American Philosophical Association to have one or two of their divisional meetings to go one line entirely. Our petition and campaign can be found here.
My piece with a rationale for this move can be found here
The APA's preliminary response can be read here
I have agreed to chair the 2025 APA Central Division Meeting, the first planned entirely virtual conference organized by the APA.
Together with Eleonore Stump, I petitioned the American Philosophical Association for a code of conduct for its members (see petition here). The APA has heard our petition and has created the code of conduct.
One of my current interests is how philosophers can increase their philosophical scope and elicit a wider readership by using fiction (in fact, using fiction to convey philosophical ideas is a time-honored tradition, with authors like Iris Murdoch, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir). An interview with me about this topic for the APA can be read here.
I have several advice pieces for junior scholars and peers that other people have found helpful. These include the following:
Writing that energizes. Advice on how to develop a positive relationship with your writing, and how you can set it low stakes enough so it does not become too daunting. Develops some ideas on the importance of discovery writing in academic prose.
Four years of learning the craft, a step-by-step guide on how to write fiction for publication in magazines.
Dealing with the collapse in the academic job market: advice for mentors and people on the job market, written in 2020 when the academic job market was severely depressed, this is a comprehensive how-to guide for graduate students on how to find a job outside of academia.
Fruitfulness versus productivity--thoughts for writing what you want to write, deals with the narrow and in ableist focus on productivity in academia, shifting to the concept of fruitfulness and how to achieve that.
Lute
I play the Renaissance lute, an instrument that was popular from roughly 1500 to 1620. It has 8 courses (which is 7 double strings and 1 single string, the chanterelle). The instrument was made in 1996 by Sandi Harris and Stephen Barber, an excellent lute maker husband-and-wife team. The tuning is G major. I now also play a baroque instrument, a 13-course archlute in A, and I intend to acquire a Baroque lute in D minor tuning because you cannot have too many lutes.
My lute and playing are featured on the Philosophy without any gaps podcast, French Renaissance section (piece is from Attaignant), here
Here are some pieces played by me (YouTube links)
Digital art
I make art with digital media, including in Procreate and Paper by WeTransfer. It has been featured on the cover of several books and magazine issues, as well as in a 2022 book with color illustrations.
See here for a portfolio of published and unpublished artworks.
My book Philosophy Illustrated, has 42 color illustrations of thought experiments by me, as well as reflections by experts on these thought experiments. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Cover art for Philosophy through Fiction (edited by Helen De Cruz, Johan De Smedt, and Eric Schwitzgebel), Bloomsbury, 2021
Cover art for Voices from the Edge (edited by Michelle Panchuk and Michael Rea), Oxford, 2020)
This Bored Panda post with drawings of philosophical thought experiments is probably one of my most viewed philosophical contributions. A volume is under contract with Oxford University Press with 42 full-color drawings of my thought experiments.
Fiction
I write short, speculative fiction with philosophical themes, which have been published in various science fiction and fantasy magazines. I am associate member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.
Published works include:
Mathematical Revelations. SF, about 4700 words. Published online and podcast in Escape Pod (2021). Narrated by Amy Sturgis
The music at the end of the world. Hopepunk, SF, 3200 words. Published online in HyphenPunk (2021). The story notes with some explanation of the philosophical concepts are here
The gleaming city. Flash fiction, SF, 600 words. Published online in 365 Tomorrows (June 18, 2021)
Soul sleep. Short story, slipstream, 2200 words, published in the online magazine 96th of October (December issue, 2020).
Introductory Dispute Concerning Science Fiction, Philosophy, and the Nutritional Content of Maraschino Cherries, co-authored with Eric Schwitzgebel and Johan De Smedt, appeared in our co-edited volume Philosophy through Fiction (edited by Helen De Cruz, Johan De Smedt, and Eric Schwitzgebel), Bloomsbury, 2021