I hold a Master’s in philosophy. To attain that, I’ve had to read many philosophy papers. Some of the papers I’ve had to read were interesting, but didn’t shock me or anything. Others have stuck with me through the years. Here are some of them. I hope they may change you as they have changed me.
For ease, I have categorized the papers by topic, although some papers could fit in more than one category. If we are friends, you can ask me to send papers to you privately.
I have provided a short summary of what I found so interesting about each of the papers. But for many papers it has been years since I last read them, so my reconstruction may not be entirely faithful.
Ethics
Strawson, Galen. “The Impossibility of Moral Responsiblity.” Philosophical Studies 75 (1994): 5-24.
Strawson argues extremely convincingly that one common understanding of free will (and moral responsibility) is untenable.
Bloom, Paul. “Empathy and its discontents.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 21 no. 1 (2017): 24-31.
Bloom argues that empathy, the ability to feel others’ pain, may make us act worse morally. It may be best to get rid of empathy.
Kukla, Quill (then: Rebecca). "That’s What She Said: The Language of Sexual Negotiation." In Ethics 129 no. 1 (2018): 70-97.
Kukla argues that the focus on consent in sexual ethics can be harmful. They propose a sexual ethics based in a discourse of invitations and gift-giving.
Velleman, J. David. "Against the Right to Die." In Ethics in Practice: An Anthology (4th edition), edited by Hugh LaFollette, 92-100. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
Velleman argues that allowing euthanasia might cause it to become coercive: some people might feel like they are a burden, and that others would be better off with them dead. What struck me most is the discussion of how the idea of dying with dignity has to do with being unwilling to depend on other people. 'Dying with dignity' seems to be a highly individualist ideal.
Politics and society
Butler, Judith. “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.” In Gender Trouble, 1-34. New York: Routledge, 1990.
In the first chapter of Judith Butler’s influential book Gender Trouble, they argue (among other things) that sex is inscribed on bodies by gender. The binary sex distinction that we make between ‘male’ and ‘female’ bodies can only be made because we already have a gender binary that causes us to interpret bodies in such a binary way.
Lloyd, Genevieve. “Reason, Gender, and Morality in the History of Philosophy.” Social Research 50, no. 3 (1983): 490-513.
Lloyd argues that it is dangerous to re-appreciate the feminine, feeling aspect as opposed to the masculine reason, because this distinction is itself based in patriarchal ideas.
Čeika, Jonas. “The Emoji Movie, Adorno and the Culture Industry.” Jonas Čeika - CCK Philosophy. March 2, 2019. Educational video, 17:14. https://youtu.be/M-m_7G31yh4.
While Adorno’s ideas are fascinating, his writing is nearly incomprehensible. This video explains some of his views on the culture industry in a clear way. Most interesting to me is the way that resistance to the system gets absorbed into the system—it’s something that can be seen over and over in today’s society.
Benjamin, Walter. Zur Kritik der Gewalt (Toward the critique of violence). (1921).
A rather hard to understand paper, but interesting nonetheless. It explores different types and meanings of violence and non-violence, and especially how the meaning of those words is affected by the state and capitalism. In 2021, Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition was released, which may be the best translation yet.
Césaire, Aimé. Discours sur le colonialisme (Discourse on colonialism). (1955).
Césaire goes hard by arguing that the Nazi atrocities were the colonial mentality brought home. The Holocaust was not something surprising, not something coming out of nowhere; Europe had been doing the same thing for many years overseas, but in World War II it came home.
Science
Heesen, Remco and Bright, Liam. “Is Peer-review a Good Idea?” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 72 no. 3 (2021): 635-663. Link.
In this paper, the authors argue that we should get rid of the peer review system in science.
Montero, Barbara Gail. “What is the Physical?” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind, edited by A. Beckermann, B.P. McLaughlin, and S. Walter, 173-188. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Physicalism is, roughly, the thesis that everything is physical. But what does ‘physical’ mean? If the bottom line of the physicalist is that there are no ghosts, “what is it about ghosts that, if they were to exist, would make them non‐physical?” (p.176). Montero considers different options for the meaning of physical, but does not find a definite solution. To me, it seems that physicalism is not a position you can hold, as no one knows what that position is.
Metaphysics
Nagatomo, Shigenori. "Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition). Edited by Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/japanese-zen/
I am not sure what to say about this article, except that this changed my lived experience (especially my experience of my ‘self’) for several weeks.