Welcome to 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology, an ever-growing set of original 1000-word essays on philosophical questions, figures, and arguments. We publish new essays frequently, so please check back for updates, and follow here and on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to receive email notifications of new essays.

Some of our most popular essays are in the categories of Ethics, Epistemology or Theory of Knowledge, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophy of Race and Philosophy of Sex and Gender and we have many other essay categories listed below. New to philosophy? See our essay What is Philosophy? 

A teaching units page of links to select sets of essays has been developed to help create course modules on common topics in philosophy and ethics courses, as well as courses in other fields.

Select Recent Essays

Critical Thinking: What is it to be a Critical Thinker? by Carolina Flores

Rousseau on Human Nature: “Amour de soi” and “Amour propre” by Corey McCabe

Videogames and Philosophy by Alex Fisher

Longtermism: How Much Should We Care About the Far Future? by Dylan Balfour

“Nasty, Brutish, and Short”: Thomas Hobbes on Life in the State of Nature by Daniel Weltman

Happiness: What is it to be Happy? by Kiki Berk

Are We Animals? Animalism and Personal Identity by Kristin Seemuth Whaley

Ethics and Absolute Poverty: Peter Singer and Effective Altruism by Brandon Boesch

Moore’s Proof of an External World: Responding to External World Skepticism by Chris Ranalli

Principlism in Biomedical Ethics: Respect for Autonomy, Non-Maleficence, Beneficence, and Justice by G. M. Trujillo, Jr.

African American Existentialism: DuBois, Locke, Thurman, and King by Anthony Sean Neal

Free Speech by Mark Satta

Distributive Justice: How Should Resources be Allocated? By Dick Timmer and Tim Meijers

Pascal’s Wager: A Pragmatic Argument for Belief in God by Liz Jackson

Conspiracy Theories by Jared Millson

Epistemology, or Theory of Knowledge by Thomas Metcalf

What Is It To Love Someone? by Felipe Pereira

Feminism Part 3: The Dominance Approach by Chelsea Haramia

al-Ghazālī’s Dream Argument by John Ramsey

Epistemic Injustice by Huzeyfe Demirtas

Removing Confederate Monuments by Travis Timmerman

Sexual Orientation, Sex, and Gender by Raja Halwani

Hell and Universalism by A.G. Holdier

Defining Capitalism and Socialism and Arguments for Capitalism and Socialism by Thomas Metcalf

Aristotle’s Defense of Slavery by Dan Lowe

The African Ethic of Ubuntu by Thaddeus Metz

Reparations for Historic Injustice by Joseph Frigault

Attributes of God by Bailie Peterson

Hope by Michael Milona & Katie Stockdale

Responding to Morally Flawed Historical Philosophers and Philosophies by Victor Fabian Abundez-Guerra and Nathan Nobis

Philosophical Inquiry in Childhood by Jana Mohr Lone

How to Establish Social Order? Three Early Chinese Answers and Wu-Wei: Acting without Desire by Henrique Schneider 

The Ontology of Race by Abiral Chitrakar Phnuyal

Mary Astell’s “A Serious Proposal to the Ladies” (1694) by Simone Webb

Dharma in Abhidharma Buddhism by Nicholaos Jones

Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 1: The Four Moral Sprouts and Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 2: The Cultivation Analogy by John Ramsey

Essay Categories

* New categories are added as the project expands. 

All Essays

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