About
Philosophy, explained clearly, for anyone who wants to think a little deeper.
Philosophy Basics began in 2008 as one person's personal project: a plain-English guide to philosophy, written for beginners rather than specialists. It grew into a widely used introduction to the subject, covering the main branches, periods and thinkers of philosophy, from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. Students, teachers and curious readers around the world have relied on it, and many universities and schools link to it.
Later owners kept the library growing. They updated articles to make them clearer and correct errors, added new material in response to readers' feedback, and redesigned the site for reading on phones.
Who owns Philosophy Basics
In September 2026, Philosophy Basics was acquired by Brown Brothers Media, a digital publisher that owns a group of websites. We're grateful to everyone who built and cared for the site before us.
We believe in stating ownership plainly. You can read about how we're funded and how we handle conflicts of interest on our Ownership and funding page.
What's staying the same
The entire Philosophy Basics library stays online, free to read, at its original addresses. That includes every philosopher profile, every entry on the branches and periods of philosophy, and the glossary. We'll only change them to correct errors or improve them, and we'll show the date of each review.
What's new
Alongside the library, we now publish a magazine. It takes ideas from philosophy and applies them to the questions people actually live with. The magazine has four sections:
- The Good Life: how to live well, from Stoicism and Epicureanism to Confucius and the moral dilemmas of everyday life.
- Human Nature: what psychology and philosophy reveal about why people think and behave the way they do.
- Lives & Ideas: the people behind the ideas, and the moments when an idea changed a life or a life tested an idea.
- In Their Words: famous quotes, what they really meant, and who actually said them.
New to philosophy? Start Here is the best way in.
How we work
Every magazine article has a named writer, who is responsible for it, and is reviewed by one of our editors before it's published. Articles link to the library and to the original texts and studies they draw on. We use AI tools to help research and draft articles, and we explain exactly how on our How we use AI page.
Our full standards are set out in our Editorial standards. If we get something wrong, we correct it openly, as explained on our Corrections page.
Meet the team
The people who write, edit and review Philosophy Basics are on our Team page.
Get in touch
We'd love to hear from readers, teachers and philosophers. See our Contact page.