Philosophy
Liberty, philosophy and 246 types of cheese
The French have always favoured grand, elegant abstractions about the human condition, says Ruth Scurr. It’s part of their national identity
It’s amazing how many different subjects Sir Thomas Browne’s latest biographer doesn’t care about
On the evening of 10 March 1804, Samuel Taylor Coleridge settled at a desk in an effort to articulate what…
How to vote like Hercules
To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…
Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem review: too clever by half
Big event. A new play from Sir Tom. And he tackles one of philosophy’s oldest and crunchiest issues, which varsity…
The forgotten flowering of the medieval mind
Sean McGlynn is delighted by a cultural journey through the Middle Ages, replete with philosophy, heresy and mysticism
Existential threat: the birth of a cliché
In the endless game of word association that governs vocabulary, the current favourite as a partner of existential is threat.…
This ex-priest’s history of the gospels could unsettle the most faithful churchgoer
When James Carroll was a boy, lying on the floor watching television, he would glance up at his mother and…
A book about human nature that makes your head spin – in a good way
Vincent Deary is a therapist, and this book is the first part of a trilogy. How We Are is about…
Humans hunger for the sacred. Why can’t the new atheists understand that?
Atheists are blind to a fundamental human need
Socrates on Maria Miller
Our former culture secretary, Maria Miller, is still apparently baffled at the fuss created by her fighting to the last…
Brains with green fingers
‘Life is bristling with thorns,’ Voltaire observed in 1769, ‘and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden.’…
Caught between a New Age rock and a theory junkie hard place
Siri Hustvedt’s new novel isn’t exactly an easy read — but the casual bookshop browser should be reassured that it’s…
Why I've started my own Mail Online
Media moguls aren’t philosophers. So it’s time for philosophers to become media moguls
Where did the Right and the Left come from?
What is the origin of left and right in politics? The traditional answer is that these ideas derive from the…
Reflections on a Metaphysical Flaneur, by Raymond Tallis - review
There are books we read for pleasure and there are books we are paid to review. However enjoyable the books…
A Slap in the Face, by William B. irvine - review
A friend of mine who works for the NHS has been told recently by a superior that his ‘attention to…
