About r/askphilosophy
In its own words:
/r/askphilosophy aims to provide serious, well-researched answers to philosophical questions.
The community was created on Feb 21, 2011, which makes it 15 years old. Among the 8 communities on our philosophy list it is number 2 by size.
What sets r/askphilosophy apart
r/askphilosophy is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 100% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 35% across the Top 100. For its size it is unusually busy: about 86.8 new posts a day per million members, more than 95% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (17:00 UTC) sees about 4.3× as many posts as the quietest (02:00 UTC).
Top posts on r/askphilosophy this week
What the community upvoted most over the last seven days, as ranked by Reddit (collected Nov 9, 2026).
- How to convince my dad that philosophy isnt useless?u/9kGFX · Nov 7 · text post
- Why am I ME, and not someone else?u/PKM_24 · Nov 3 · text post
- So how hard is getting a career in philosophy?u/9kGFX · Nov 2 · text post
- is Logic necessarily true?u/collectors_anxiety · Nov 6 · text post
- Is a thought really a thought if it cannot be formed into words?u/Sukondi69 · Nov 6 · text post
- Can you morally wrong a dead person by keeping something they explicitly asked you to destroy?u/82Cabletie · Nov 7 · text post
- Is it me or is Kant not as hard as people are saying? (Go easy on me, JUST started reading him)u/FreshmanCult · Nov 2 · text post
- How do you have a meaningful conversations with someone who doesn't care about justification or consistency.u/Mammoth-Basket8350 · Nov 2 · text post
- Why is the burden of proof so rarely placed on those who defend the status quo?u/Repulsive-Pianist-95 · Nov 8 · text post
- Best preperation to become a professor of philosophie one dayu/Maximum_Wash_1236 · Nov 7 · text post
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/askphilosophy, from 2020 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.
- Why is philosophy so pretentious?u/Puzzleheaded-Law-957 · May 27, 2025 · text post
- If Sartre thought humans were radically free then why did he choose to be French?u/Reddithahawholesome · Apr 22, 2026 · text post
- Is it bad to wish death to evil people?Dec 5, 2024 · text post
- Why is it so exceedingly difficult for us to think beyond capitalism? How have we come to embrace what one author has called “capitalist realism”? Why is it easier for us to imagine the end of the wo…u/NoWave3 · May 27, 2021 · text post
- Why are we always adamant to prevent people's suicides but never actually do anything to help them while they're alive and struggling? Is making them stay alive to suffer actually the best action?u/thebadsamaritanlol · Feb 7, 2025 · text post
- What's with all these cringeworthy STOICISM videos popping up all over social media recently? Where is this hype coming from?u/Yaddah_1 · Oct 19, 2023 · text post
- In 1971, Chomsky formally debated Foucault on human nature. After the debate, Chomsky said that Foucault was the most amoral person he had ever met and that he seemed to come from a "different specie…u/Fuck_Off_Libshit · Sep 22, 2024 · text post
- If everyone thinks the other side is brainwashed, how can anyone know who’s actually right?u/Prior-Bonus9744 · Apr 8, 2025 · text post
- Reading Nietzsche made me depressedu/iLoveBears1233 · Jan 6, 2025 · text post
- A weird philosophical question from my nephew.u/abk-repentence · Dec 19, 2024 · text post
What r/askphilosophy talks about
Looking at the titles of 299 recent posts (Oct 31–Nov 7), the words that come up most are “philosophy”, “life”, “question”, “theory” and “god”. Other frequent themes are moral, good, humans, free, person and philosophers. Recurring phrases include “extraterrestrial life”, “kant philosophy”, “study philosophy” and “academic volumes”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Activity and best time to post
r/askphilosophy gets about 39 new posts a day. The public archive holds 230,573 posts and 1,737,365 comments in total, about 7.5 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (55 posts) and the quietest was Wednesday (33). Posting peaks around 17:00 UTC and is lowest around 02:00 UTC.
Rules of r/askphilosophy
The moderators of r/askphilosophy list 11 rules. In short:
- PR1: All questions must be about philosophy.
- PR2: All submissions must be questions.
- PR3: Post titles must be descriptive.
- PR4: Questions must be reasonably specific.
- PR5: Questions must not be about commenters' personal opinions.
- PR6: One post per day.
- CR1: Top level comments must be answers or follow-up questions from panelists.
- CR2: Answers must be reasonably substantive and accurate.
- CR3: Be respectful.
- CR4: Stay on topic.
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/askphilosophy and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/askphilosophy have?
r/askphilosophy has 445,906 subscribers.
How old is r/askphilosophy?
r/askphilosophy was created on Feb 21, 2011, so it has been around for 15 years.
How active is r/askphilosophy?
Very active: r/askphilosophy gets about 39 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 230,573 posts and 1,737,365 comments. In a sample of 299 recent posts we counted 256 different authors.
When is r/askphilosophy most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 31, 2026 to Nov 6, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Wednesday, and most posts arrive around 17:00 UTC, with the fewest around 02:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/askphilosophy about?
The community describes itself as: “/r/askphilosophy aims to provide serious, well-researched answers to philosophical questions.” Recent post titles often mention philosophy, life, question, theory and god. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/askphilosophy safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/askphilosophy as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/askphilosophy?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/askphilosophy accepts text posts only. It has 11 posted rules, starting with: “PR1: All questions must be about philosophy.”; “PR2: All submissions must be questions.”; “PR3: Post titles must be descriptive.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/askphilosophy?
Communities with similar topics include r/philosophy (18.6M) and r/PhilosophyMemes (1.3M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 9, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 9, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/askphilosophy.