Our panel of 91 professional philosophers has responded to

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

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.