Explore Philosophy
Resources for thinking, not just submitting.
A question bank to get started, a practical guide to writing an argument, and plain introductions to the areas of philosophy you are most likely to wander into.
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A Guide to Writing a Strong Philosophy Essay
Ten short sections on argument, structure, objections, and submission — written for students at any level of experience.
- What makes an essay philosophical
- Arguments, validity, and soundness
- Choosing a question and thesis
- Objections, response, and revision
Question Generator
Not sure what to write about?
Draw a question from the bank, choose a topic, or keep generating until something catches. Then argue with it.
Ethics
Is it ever right to break a promise in order to help someone?
Using AI
Technology can assist inquiry. It should never replace it.
Philosophy begins with independent thought. AI can help you explore questions, clarify a concept, or find a place to start — but it cannot do the reasoning that makes an essay yours.
Technology should expand the possibilities of philosophical inquiry, not diminish the value of human reasoning.
In practice: submissions must be your own reasoning. If AI helped you think something through, test the idea, then write the argument yourself.
Writing Philosophy
Six steps from a question to an argument.
This is not a formula for a perfect essay. It is the order of work that tends to produce a defensible one.
- 01
Find a question that can be argued
A philosophical question has more than one defensible answer. “What is friendship?” is a topic; “Can a friendship survive dishonesty?” is a question you can argue about. Test yours by writing the strongest answer on each side.
Topic: lying. Question: Is it ever right to lie in order to protect someone you love?
- 02
Develop a thesis you can defend
Your thesis is the single claim your essay exists to establish. Make it specific enough to be disagreed with, and honest enough that you could imagine changing your mind. Avoid announcing that you will “explore” a topic — say what you will argue.
Weak: Lying is complicated. Defensible: Lying is permissible only when the person deceived could not have consented to the truth being withheld.
- 03
Build the argument, step by step
Each paragraph should do one job: state a reason, explain why that reason supports your claim, and answer the obvious question a reader would ask next. Keep the chain visible — a reader should be able to point at any sentence and say what it is doing.
Reason → what the reason means → why it supports the thesis → the objection it invites.
- 04
Take the best objection seriously
Find the strongest version of the view you oppose, not the easiest one. State it fairly enough that its defender would recognise it. An essay that defeats a weak opponent has not shown much.
Instead of “Some people think lying is always wrong because they are naive”, try to explain the actual principle behind the objection.
- 05
Respond to the objection
You have three honest options: show that the objection rests on a false premise, accept part of it and adjust your thesis, or show that your position survives it anyway. All three are philosophy. Ignoring the objection is not.
“This objection is right that consent matters; it is wrong that consent is the only thing that matters, because…”
- 06
Conclude with what you have shown
Do not summarise the essay. Say what has been established, what remains uncertain, and why the question still matters. A good conclusion leaves the reader with the argument, not with a recap of your paragraphs.
Before you submit
Read it once as a reader.
Tick each line as it becomes true of your essay. Nothing is saved — this is a mirror, not a form.
Branches of Philosophy
Seven places a question can take you.
Ethics
Asks how we should act and what makes a life good. It covers questions about right and wrong, obligation, character, and the value of consequences — and it is usually where students begin.
Metaphysics
Asks what exists and what it is like. Personal identity, time, causation, possibility, and the nature of objects all belong here. Metaphysical questions often begin with something so ordinary that it is hard to see it as a question at all.
Epistemology
Asks what knowledge is, how we get it, and when a belief is justified. It examines evidence, testimony, doubt, and the difference between knowing something and merely believing it.
Political Philosophy
Asks how we should live together. It examines authority, justice, freedom, equality, and the legitimate limits of state power — questions that arrive as soon as two people disagree about how to share a world.
Philosophy of Mind
Asks what minds are and how they relate to bodies. Consciousness, thought, perception, and the possibility of machine intelligence sit here, alongside the older puzzle of what it is like to be someone else.
Aesthetics
Asks about beauty, art, and taste. What makes something a work of art? Can judgements of beauty be right or wrong? Why do works of art move us, and does their moral character matter?
Logic
Studies the structure of good reasoning. It is less a topic than a toolkit: validity, truth, inference, and the difference between an argument that persuades and one that holds up.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates, as reported by Plato, Apology 38a