August 2013

In this classic in the philosophy of history, Karl Popper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper) attacks those who believe in the ‘iron laws’ of history. In other words that there is some kind of fixed destiny or inevitability about how things must work out. For example, the ascendancy of the ‘pure blooded’ races (Fascism). Or the victory of the […]

Have you ever wondered what could possibly be meant by the epigrams ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world‘, or ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’. These are just two of a large number of utterances (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein) from celebrated Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein). His contribution to the subject

Many readers love Roger Scruton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Scruton) for his traditionalist conservatism whether that be in aesthetics , politics, The Church of England,  or public affairs (e.g. issues like fox hunting). Making love to Roger might be a whole lot trickier. He has allowed the fecundity of his mind to generate a tome on the philosophical aspects

We normally take it for granted that other people will live on after we ourselves have died. Even if we do not believe in a personal afterlife in which we survive our own deaths, we assume that there will be a ‘collective afterlife’ in which humanity survives long after we are gone. Samuel Scheffler (http://as.nyu.edu/faculty/samuel-scheffler.html) maintains

Our subjective experience of time is that the future advances towards us into the present moment and then recedes into the past. It is a kind of ‘flow’, ‘the river of time’. Many people are troubled by questions about the relation between past, present and future. Is time travel possible? If so could you kill your own

This is the best short introduction to Humanism I’ve read. Part of the ‘Thinking in Action’ series from Routledge, it is systematic, clear and cool headed. People often ask me ‘What is Humanism?’ The best boiled down answer I’ve got is ‘An ethical life without superstition’ Richard Norman (Professor of Philosophy at Kent, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Norman) covers

Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Protagoras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagoras) declares in the dialogue of the same name by Plato that ‘Man is the Measure of all Things’. If there is an objective reality ‘out there’ how can we know it except through our human point of view? David E. Cooper, (Professor of Philosophy at Durham, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Cooper) takes up this challenge.

Donald E. Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_E._Brown) offered this thesis in 1991. His own summary of human universals is that they “comprise those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exception.” We are all tiresomely familiar with the banal falsity that ‘everything is relative’. In the field of anthropology at least, Brown

In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the melancholy Jaques declares: “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players.” This is a celebrated use of metaphor, a figure of speech in which one thing is used to describe another. As one of the central structural elements in human thought it is the habit,

George Steiner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Steiner) has enjoyed a spectacular academic career, teaching in many prestigious institutions and writing voluminously. He is a comparative literary critic and polymath. This is an anthology of his writings between 1978-1996. Topics covered are the Hebrew Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, tragedy, Simone Weil, Saint-Simone, Peguy, Husserl, dreams, Kafka, Kierkegaard, tautology, the two suppers

What can one say about A.C. Bradley’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bradley) Shakespearean Tragedy? This is a masterpiece of literary criticism that has enriched and influenced generations of students and lovers of Shakespeare since its publication in 1904. There is a beautiful lyrical poise and scholarly self-assurance in the work which makes one go back to read again (I

Social scientist and writer Malcom Galdwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell) put forward this thesis in 2008 about what leads to success. He examines the case of The Beatles, Bill Gates and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He draws on cultural and social factors to show that it’s not all a complete mystery. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he points to sheer hard work, practice