The Lion King shows how an Epicurean lifestyle upholds Kant’s categorical imperative — I worry a great deal about my children’s future. Every day I am confronted by news of school shootings, rising teen suicide rates, and epidemic youth opioid addiction. Those are minor worries, however, compared to the runaway train of climate collapse, which seems inevitable given the wholesale cultural changes needed…

Anti-natalists seek to end human procreation — and climate change is underwriting their appeal — In Feb. 2019, 27-year-old Mumbai businessman Raphael Samuel decided to sue his parents. His grievance? He never consented to be born or to live with suffering. Since his parents forced him to do both by ushering him into life, Samuel argues that they should pay him simply to live so…

Nietzsche’s theory of art can help us understand why transgressive horror is sublime — Horror enthusiasts often struggle to explain the appeal of their favorite film genre. The blood, the screams, the suffering, the scares — to the uninitiated, the elemental substances of horror are reason enough to avoid it. Still, horror fans like me often leave the theater feeling positively giddy — as…

Don’t just read philosophers — be one — Plato’s Gymnasium is a new Medium Publication dedicated to giving everyday philosophers a voice in the discussions that matter most. If that sounds meaningful to you, then you should write for us! First, thing’s first, help Plato’s Gymnasium succeed by following it. Next, you need me to add you as…

The father of philosophy sought to reconfigure society by engineering cooperation into humanity’s most fundamental institution — Celebrating Father’s Day always reminds me of Plato’s Republic. Clearly, that observation demands an explanation, so here goes. My high school had a terrible boys basketball team. …

A quick and easy guide to Plato’s hypothetical “regency of the enlightened” — Regardless of how you identify on the political spectrum, it’s safe to assume that we agree on at least one thing: there is little to admire in American political discourse these days. Television political “analysis” is reductive at best, conspiracy theorist at worst — Tucker Carlson’s spurious claims that the…

Plato, Karl Marx, and Bertrand Russell each claimed that philosophy is essential to the good life — I grew up in a Southern Baptist church that preached a fate of everlasting torment in a lake of unquenchable fire for those on the wrong side of God. I believed that story and all that came with it for the first half of my life — I took for…

This Memorial Day, honor freedom by thinking critically about American armed forces — In the brief course of American history, approximately 1.1 million soldiers have been killed in action fighting US wars. On Memorial Day, we Americans honor those who have died “fighting for freedom” on our behalf. And true enough, individual freedoms abound in the US, though recent legal developments portend foreclosures…

Lessons in shameless self-promotion from Friedrich Nietzsche — Let’s be real: We write because we want attention and money in obscene quantities. And we don’t want to work 9–5 jobs or contribute anything valuable in the real world to get them. We’re greedy, fame-starved sociopaths out for late night TV appearances, movie adaptations, and luxury apartments in Manhattan…