(Russell, 1912/2009) In “The Eleven Fundamental Problems of Philosophy and How to Solve The Hyper-Fundamental Problem,” Robert Hanna formulates a list of the eleven fundamental problems of philosophy, then identifies one of them–the problem of rational anthropology: what is the nature, meaning or purpose, and value of individual and collective rational human existence in a … [continue reading]

(Williams, 2021) In “Can Philosophers Change Their Minds” Robert Hanna argues that as many as 99% of all contemporary professional academic philosophers, after they’ve completed their PhD dissertations, as much as 99% of the time don’t read anything outside their AOS, as much as 99% of the time don’t work on anything outside their AOS, … [continue reading]

“The Death of Socrates by Means of the APA,” by Q (APP, 2013a), after “The Death of Socrates,” by Jacques-Louis David (1787) In “Philosophia Longa, Vita Brevis,” Robert Hanna correspondingly argues that philosophia longa, vita brevis. That neologized Latin aphorism means: “philosophy is long, life is short.” Of course, Hanna riffing on the classical aphorism … [continue reading]

 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)  Timothy Williamson (1955-present) In “Kant, Williamson, and the Future of Analytic Philosophy,” Robert Hanna points out that it’s a truth not generally acknowledged, that all Anglo-American-&-European philosophy since Kant—i.e., since the end of the 18th century—is post-Kantian. This is of course trivially true, in that all Anglo-American-&-European philosophy since the end of … [continue reading]

(Wikimedia Commons, 2026) Literacy emerged in Sumeria roughly 5500 years ago, but the emergence of philosophy in ancient Greece roughly 2500 years ago seems to have been closely bound up with the emergence of the first alphabetic writing-&-reading system there in the 8th century BCE (Rayner et al., 2012: ch. 2). Certainly, in the 6th … [continue reading]

(Kyiv Mohyla Academy, 2023) In “What Good is Philosophy? My Answer.,” inspired by the title of an international conference in 2023, Robert Hanna attempts to provide an answer to the conference’s titular question himself. Now, like most philosophical questions, the question, “what good is philosophy?” is in fact a complex question that should be decomposed … [continue reading]

Kant Futurized (Quintessential Mind, 2023) The future of philosophy and the future of humankind-in-the-world are intimately related, not only (i) in the obvious sense that all philosophers are “human, all-too-human” animals—i.e., members of the biological species Homo sapiens, and also finite, fallible, and thoroughly normative imperfect in every other way too—hence the natural fate of … [continue reading]

“Girl with a Book,” by Alexander Deineka  (1934) In “Caveat Lector: From Wittgenstein to The Philosophy of Reading,” Robert Hanna explores, against the grain of Analytic philosophy’s general avoidance of the fact or phenomenon of reading, and starting out with Wittgenstein’s compact sub-investigation in Philosophical Investigations into “the part the word [‘reading’] plays in our … [continue reading]

“Girl with a Book,” by Alexander Deineka  (1934) In “The Philosophy of Reading as First Philosophy,” Robert Hanna argues as follows: You, the reader of this very sentence, are consciously reading this very sentence from left to right here and now. Dear Reader, please now read the first sentence of this essay again, this time … [continue reading]

(Lewandowsky et al., 2012: p. 122) On the whole, philosophical correspondence and philosophical conversation alike are often interesting and productive, and sometimes profoundly significant. Indeed, sometimes philosophical correspondence and philosophical conversation are mind-changing or life-changing, and even—in accordance with Marx’s famous dictum that thus far philosophers have only ever interpreted the world in different ways, … [continue reading]