Our panel of 91 professional philosophers has responded to

574
 questions about 
Philosophy
81
 questions about 
Identity
77
 questions about 
Emotion
88
 questions about 
Physics
110
 questions about 
Animals
58
 questions about 
Abortion
374
 questions about 
Logic
31
 questions about 
Space
151
 questions about 
Existence
284
 questions about 
Mind
134
 questions about 
Love
124
 questions about 
Profession
39
 questions about 
Race
392
 questions about 
Religion
89
 questions about 
Law
75
 questions about 
Perception
24
 questions about 
Suicide
221
 questions about 
Value
4
 questions about 
Economics
1280
 questions about 
Ethics
69
 questions about 
Business
287
 questions about 
Language
80
 questions about 
Death
36
 questions about 
Literature
43
 questions about 
Color
2
 questions about 
Action
68
 questions about 
Happiness
117
 questions about 
Children
2
 questions about 
Culture
75
 questions about 
Beauty
34
 questions about 
Music
27
 questions about 
Gender
218
 questions about 
Education
70
 questions about 
Truth
5
 questions about 
Euthanasia
23
 questions about 
History
54
 questions about 
Medicine
208
 questions about 
Science
110
 questions about 
Biology
170
 questions about 
Freedom
67
 questions about 
Feminism
282
 questions about 
Knowledge
51
 questions about 
War
154
 questions about 
Sex
96
 questions about 
Time
32
 questions about 
Sport
105
 questions about 
Art
244
 questions about 
Justice
58
 questions about 
Punishment

Question of the Day

Einstein gets credit for relativity, but (in spite of his having been a patent clerk) not a patent. Not all innovations are patentable, and in the sciences, philosophy, history... this is a very good thing. If something is patented, then others typically have to pay to use it. That’s not what we want for scientific or philosophical ideas.

What you seem more concerned about is credit, and there the answer is usually straightforward. The person who publishes the idea first generally gets credit. What credit means is just that it will be acknowledged by others that the person getting the credit is the originator of the idea.

But remember that few ideas are thoroughly original, that sometimes a larger idea can be “in the air,” so to speak, with more than one person coming up with a version, and that even if Jo Blow gets “credit,” that doesn’t mean her contribution will end up being the most important; how others develop the idea may be what ends up mattering most.

If you think you have an original philosophical idea, the general advice would be to try getting it published in a philosophy journal. But be warned: the process of getting something accepted for publication is very rigorous. Among other things, the referees will ask themselves whether what you’re saying actually is a new contribution (and trust me: there’s a good chance that it isn’t.) They will also go over the arguments for your thesis with a fine-tooth comb. And they will pay close attention to whether your article makes appropriate contact with the larger philosophical literature. There’s a reason why most published philosophy is written by people who spent years learning their craft.