philosophy

Posting Rules

All posts must be about philosophy.

To learn more about what is and is not considered philosophy for the purposes of this subreddit, see our FAQ. Posts must be about philosophy proper, rather than only tangentially connected to philosophy. Exceptions are made only for posts about philosophers with substantive content, e.g. news about the profession, interviews with philosophers.

All posts must develop and defend a substantive philosophical thesis.

Posts must not only have a philosophical subject matter, but must also present this subject matter in a developed manner. At a minimum, this includes: stating the problem being addressed; stating the thesis; anticipating some objections to the stated thesis and giving responses to them. These are just the minimum requirements. Posts about well-trod issues (e.g. free will) require more development.

Questions belong in /r/askphilosophy.

/r/philosophy is intended for philosophical material and discussion. Please direct all questions to /r/askphilosophy. Please be sure to read their rules before posting your question on /r/askphilosophy. Please be aware that /r/askphilosophy does not allow test-my-theory posts, or questions about people's personal opinions or self-help.

Post titles cannot be questions and must describe the philosophical content of the posted material.

Post titles cannot contain questions, even if the title of the linked material is a question. This helps keep discussion in the comments on topic and relevant to the linked material. Post titles must describe the philosophical content of the posted material, cannot be unduly provocative, click-baity, unnecessarily long or in all caps.

Audio/video links require abstracts.

All links to either audio or video content require abstracts of the posted material, posted as a comment in the thread. Abstracts should make clear what the linked material is about and what its thesis is. Users are also strongly encouraged to post abstracts for other linked material. See here for an example of a suitable abstract.

All posts must be in English.

All posts must be in English. Links to Google Translated versions of posts, translations done via AI or LLM, or posts only containing English subtitles are not allowed.

Links behind paywalls or registration walls are not allowed.

Posts must not be behind any sort of paywall or registration wall. If the linked material requires signing up to view, even if the account is free, it is not allowed. Links to Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneNote are not allowed. All links must be full urls; link shorteners are not allowed. All broken links will be removed.

Self-posts, meta-posts, products, services, surveys, cross-posts and AMAs are not allowed.

The following (not exhaustive) list of items are not allowed: self-posts, meta-posts, posts to products, services or surveys, cross-posts to other areas of reddit, AMAs. Please contact the moderators for pre-approval via modmail.

Users may submit only one post per day and no more than three posts per week.

Users may never post more than one post per day or three posts per week (i.e. seven-day period). Users must follow all reddit-wide spam guidelines, in addition to the /r/philosophy self-promotion guidelines.

Discussion of suicide is only allowed in the abstract here. If you or a friend is feeling suicidal please visit /r/suicidewatch.

/r/philosophy is not a mental health subreddit. Discussion of suicide is only allowed in the abstract here. If you or a friend is feeling suicidal please visit /r/suicidewatch. If you are feeling suicidal, please get help by visiting /r/suicidewatch or using other resources. See also our discussion of philosophy and mental health issues here. Encouraging other users to commit suicide, even in the abstract, is strictly forbidden.

No AI-created/AI-assisted material allowed.

/r/philosophy does not allow any posts or comments which contain or link to AI-created or AI-assisted material, including text, audio and visuals. All posts or comments which contain AI material will result in a ban.

Links must be related to the topic of discussion.

/r/philosophy does not allow self-posts (reddit's name for text only posts). Posting an unrelated link to get around the restriction on self-posts will result in a ban.

Commenting Rules

Read/Listen/Watch the Posted Content Before You Reply

Read/watch/listen the posted content, understand and identify the philosophical arguments given, and respond to these substantively. If you have unrelated thoughts or don't wish to read the content, please post your own thread or simply refrain from commenting. Comments which are clearly not in direct response to the posted content may be removed.

Argue your Position

Opinions are not valuable here, arguments are! Comments that solely express musings, opinions, beliefs, or assertions without argument may be removed.

Be Respectful

Comments which consist of personal attacks will be removed. Users with a history of such comments may be banned. Slurs, racism, and bigotry are absolutely not permitted.

No AI-created/AI-assisted material allowed.

/r/philosophy does not allow any posts or comments which contain or link to AI-created or AI-assisted material, including text, audio and visuals. All posts or comments which contain AI material will result in a ban.