For many the lockdown has been an opportunity for thought, reading and writing – perhaps while queuing to enter the supermarket, after putting the kids to sleep, or while pedalling madly on the spot. For some of us – as it did for Boethius under house arrest – Philosophy has bought consolation at such times. In that spirit, the Royal Institute of Philosophy, with the support of Cambridge University Press, is making a series of articles freely accessible to everyone during the UK lockdown.

With the help of our redoubtable assistant editor, Matt Hewson, we have made a selection of old and recent, better-known and somewhat-forgotten papers, on topics spanning all areas of philosophy and its history. Among others, you will be able to read Elizabeth Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, Cora Diamond’s ‘Eating Meat and Eating People’, Dererk Parfit’s ‘We are not Human Beings’, Peter Hacker’s, ‘Is There Anything it is Like to be a Bat?’,  Richard Dawkins, ‘In Defence of Selfish Genes’ or Mary Midgley, ‘Gene-juggling’. The selection offers also the opportunity for intellectual encounters with some of the great figures in the history of Western philosophy, guided by contemporary experts. Richard Sorabji introduces the topics of ‘Body and soul in Aristotle’, Alexander Broadie and Elizabeth Pybus write on ‘Kant’s treatment of animals’, Frederick Coplestone reveals the thought of ‘Friedrich Nietzsche’, and Julia Annas explores ‘Mill and the subjection of women’. And, to get a sense of what the whole thing is –or should be– about, you can read Bernard Williams on ‘Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline’.

So, if you feel the need to open your mind, exercise your brain, or give some solace to your soul, go to: https://www.royalinstitutephilosophy.org/publications/free-articles/.