Philosopher and writer. Articles and reviews for @Aeonmag @NewStatesman @prospect_uk @NewHumanist @ArtsPro @psyche_the_mag Editor of Reading Bernard Williams
Articles by Daniel Callcut
Book review: The Life You Want
The more you bring to this psychoanalytical book on desire in life, the more you'll get out of it – by – Tuesday, 7th July 2026 Freud famously used the image of a rider on horseback to illustrate the dynamic between the conscious and unconscious mind.
Book review: Hopeful Pessimism
Hopeful Pessimism (Princeton University Press 2025) by Mara van der Lugt Greta Thunberg famously told an audience at Davos, “I don’t want your hope.” What made more sense, she suggested, was for people to panic. Thunberg, it’s fair to say, is a pessimist about the climate crisis, having seen failure after failure on environmental issues by her supposedly wiser elders. Her bleak outlook might seem to allow little room for hope.
Book review: Think by Svend Brinkmann
Think: In Defence of a Thoughtful Life (Polity) by Svend Brinkmann, translated by Tam McTurk Thinking is a hot topic, just not in relation to humans. Instead, it’s artificial intelligence that prompts daily discussion. Svend Brinkmann’s stimulating book invites the reader to reflect on the human ability to think, rather than the growing capabilities of machines.
Book review: Life is Hard by Kieran Setiya
Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way (Hutchinson Heinemann) by Kieran Setiya Kieran Setiya is an accomplished analytic philosopher and, increasingly, one of the finest public philosophers working today. His latest book, Life Is Hard, was written during the pandemic and its title certainly captures the present mood. But Setiya doesn’t just mean that life is hard now. After all, haven’t infirmity, grief and injustice always been with us, and won’t they remain so?
What teaching philosophy taught me about BBC balance
BBC New Broadcasting House sign in central London. Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Archive/PA Images Perhaps nothing is so distrusted, in an age that prizes authenticity, as the attempt to act in a politically neutral fashion. The recent general election has brought accusations of BBC news bias to a new level of intensity. The organisation’s claims to balanced coverage, under attack from left and right, represent one more pillar of the traditional liberal order under threat of disintegration.
Paul Gaugin, the National Gallery and the philosophical conundrum of exhibiting immoral artists
What responsibilities do galleries have when they display work by monstrous creators? by Daniel Callcut / October 16, 2019 / Leave a comment On 11th October I appeared on a panel at the National Gallery to discuss questions of art and morality in relation to Paul Gauguin’s life and work. The gallery’s major new exhibition of Gauguin’s portraits rightly raises ethical questions with a now familiar ring.
Paul Gauguin, the National Gallery and the philosophical conundrum of exhibiting immoral artists
What responsibilities do galleries have when they display work by monstrous creators? by Daniel Callcut / October 16, 2019 / Leave a comment On 11th October I appeared on a panel at the National Gallery to discuss questions of art and morality in relation to Paul Gauguin’s life and work. The gallery’s major new exhibition of Gauguin’s portraits rightly raises ethical questions with a now familiar ring.
Book review: Witcraft
Jonathan Rée's new book is a fascinating history of how philosophy entered and developed within the English language. This article is a preview from the Autumn 2019 editionof New Humanist Witcraft: The Invention of Philosophy in English (Allen Lane) by Jonathan Rée Wouldn’t life be easier, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wondered, if some people looked like cats, or fish, and others like elephants?
The philosophical problem with our pursuit of “authenticity”
“Become who you are,” said Nietzsche If the fashionable idea of the 1980s was upward mobility, then the buzzword of this decade is authenticity. This ruling ideal of being true to yourself and “keeping it real” is rarely criticised. But what if the message deters individual transformation and encourages everyone to stay in their place? Is the ethic of authenticity in some ways more conservative than the Thatcherite yuppie message it replaced?
The philosophical problem with our pursuit of “authenticity”
If the fashionable idea of the 1980s was upward mobility, then the buzzword of this decade is authenticity. This ruling ideal of being true to yourself and “keeping it real” is rarely criticised. But what if the message deters individual transformation and encourages everyone to stay in their place? Is the ethic of authenticity in some ways more conservative than the Thatcherite yuppie message it replaced? I think it’s time to consider how authenticity stands in the way of progress and aspiration.
If anyone can see the morally unthinkable online, what then?
Imagine you work at a Latex glove factory. One night, you type 'Latex' into Google: you’re searching for competitors' products, but you find other things too. Some of what you find turns you on. But some of it you wish you could unsee: prior to the search, it was morally unthinkable. It's easy to under-appreciate the importance of the morally unthinkable. Discussions of ethics tend to focus on matters of conscious choice: which moral rules to follow, or advice on how to approach moral dilemmas.
If anyone can see the morally unthinkable online, what then?
Photo by psyberartist/Flickr Imagine you work at a Latex glove factory. One night, you type ‘Latex’ into Google: you’re searching for competitors’ products, but you find other things too. Some of what you find turns you on. But some of it you wish you could unsee: prior to the search, it was morally unthinkable. It’s easy to underappreciate the importance of the morally unthinkable.
Why it is better not to aim at being morally perfect – Daniel Callcut | Aeon Essays
‘I am glad,’ wrote the acclaimed American philosopher Susan Wolf, ‘that neither I nor those about whom I care most’ are ‘moral saints’. This declaration is one of the opening remarks of a landmark essay in which Wolf imagines what it would be like to be morally perfect. If you engage with Wolf’s thought experiment, and the conclusions she draws from it, then you will find that it offers liberation from the trap of moral perfection.
Living the life authentic: Bernard Williams on Paul Gauguin
‘If there’s one theme in all my work it’s about authenticity and self-expression,’ said the philosopher Bernard Williams in an interview with The Guardian in 2002. Authenticity was already an influential cultural ideal during Williams’s lifetime (he was born in 1929 and died in 2003) but it has become only more so since. What is more familiar and compelling than the injunction to be true to oneself, to keep it real?
Daniel Callcut, The Value of Teaching Moral Skepticism - PhilPapers
This article argues that introductory ethics classes can unwittingly create or confirm skeptical views toward morality. Introductory courses frequently include critical discussion of skeptical positions such as moral relativism and psychological egoism as a way to head off this unintended outcome. But this method of forestalling skepticism can have a residual (and unintended) skeptical effect.
Daniel Callcut, Mill, sentimentalism and the problem of moral authority - PhilPapers
Mill’s aim in chapter 3 of Utilitarianism is to show that his revisionary moral theory can preserve the kind of authority typically and traditionally associated with moral demands. One of his main targets is the idea that if people come to believe that morality is rooted in human sentiment then they will feel less bound by moral obligation.
Daniel Callcut, Introduction - PhilPapers
In Reading Bernard Williams. Routledge (2008) Copy BIBTEX Introduction to volume containing essays by Simon Blackburn, John Cottingham, Frances Ferguson, Joshua Gert, Peter Goldie, Charles Guignon, Sharon Krause, Christopher Kutz, Daniel Markovits, Elijah Millgram, Martha Nussbaum, and Carol Rovane.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Daniel
Contact Daniel, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack