Pathways School of Philosophy

Sketch of Geoffrey Klempner

To celebrate the 'discovery' of the Higgs boson on 4th July 2012 we are using a background picture from the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. The image depicts two photons (wave-particles of light) colliding. (ATLAS Experiment © 2012 CERN)

ASK A PHILOSOPHER!


Ask a Philosopher was launched in 1999 on the University of Sheffield web site. Since then, we have responded to thousands of questions submitted from all over the world. In 2006 Ask a Philosopher moved to commercial web hosting at philosophypathways.com.

This service is offered courtesy of Pathways to Philosophy, the independent distance learning project run by the International Society for Philosophers.

Answers are posted regularly at askaphilosopher.co.uk. Your question is more likely to be answered if you show that you have thought about the problem and are not just asking us to do your homework for you. For advice on formulating your question see below.



Click here if you have a question which you would like to put to our panel.

Click here if you are a philosopher and you have the answer to a question.



Are you looking for someone to talk to about philosophy? If you are on Facebook why not join the International Society for Philosophers open group? Or register now with StudyPartners.net.



View the latest Questions and Answers




Answer a question

Philosophy graduates and teachers are invited to contribute their expertise. If you would like to help, you are welcome to submit your response to any of the questions or answers posted on the current Answer page. You can submit your answer by clicking the Answer button above.

The latest questions are distributed to members of the Ask a Philosopher panel. If you would like to join the panel, please email askaphilosopher@fastmail.net, including a brief CV and statement of your academic qualifications.

Alternatively, show us what you can do by submitting answers to some of the questions on these pages:

questions 1  questions 2  questions 3  questions 4  questions 5

questions 6  questions 7  questions 8  questions 9  questions 10

Please note that this is an opportunity to show how philosophers think — what is a philosophical approach to a question — and not simply to sound off about your own pet theory. There is too much of that on the internet already.

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Questions and answers archives

To check whether your question has been answered before, or to browse through the archives of questions and answers, try the PhiloSophos Knowledge Base which includes a Freefind search engine.

The search engine searches for pages which have all the terms entered in the search box. If no pages have all the terms, then the search engine will show the pages with the best fit first.

Or if you just want to browse through some of the questions and answers which have been posted, then click any of the links on the right hand side of this page.

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To increase the likelihood of your question being answered

  • Check with previous questions and answers to see if your particular question has been answered before. You might want to add to the question or respond to a previous answer.

  • If you are having difficulty with an essay or course work, try to put the question in your own words rather than simply writing down the question you have been set.

  • Tell us if you have any ideas about how your question might be tackled. We like to see that you have tried to think the question through for yourself before coming for help.

  • Try to think of something interesting or original to ask. If the best question you can come up with is 'Why?' or, 'Is this a question?' then don't bother because we've heard it.

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Problems removed

Try the Pathways Problem Removal Service if your problem is more practical in nature. We can give advice in identifying and solving your problem. In certain circumstances, we are also prepared to offer practical help.

We are not agony aunts, and we can't promise that you will like the advice that we give.

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Some easy-to-remember URLs

http://go.to/ask-a-philosopher (Ask a Philosopher)
http://welcome.to/philosophers (Answer page)
http://how.to/philosophise (Pathways Study Guide)
http://back.to/philosophy (Philosophy Book List)
http://tentativeanswers.blogspot.com (Tentative Answers)
http://electronicphilosopher.com (Electronic Philosopher)


Thank you for taking the time to visit these pages.

Geoffrey Klempner
Director of Studies

 

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Pathways to Philosophy

Programs page
Student letters
How-to-do-it guide
Essay archive
Launch page

Pathways teaching materials © G. Klempner 1995–2013
'Sketch' © June Wynter 1999

University of Sheffield

Pathways e-journals Philosophy Pathways and Philosophy for Business are distributed by the University of Sheffield List Server and listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Directory of Open Access Journals

Since 2003 Pathways has provided tuition for the Diploma and BA in Philosophy offered by the University of London International Programme based at Birkbeck College.

Birkbeck College London Department of Philosophy University of London International Programme for Philosophy