Our panel of 91 professional philosophers has responded to

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

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.