Standard histories of philosophy treat the subject in a methodical and scholarly fashion, attempting to encapsulate the whole business in a short number of volumes. Bertrand Russell’s ‘History of Western Philosophy‘, Freddie Copleston’s ‘A History of Philosophy’ (11 vols.), and Anthony Kenny’s ‘A New History of Western Philosophy‘ (originally 3 volumes) have been ready to […]
The Dream of Enlightenment by Anthony Gottlieb Read More »
It has sometimes been noted that Lanark is a resolutely conservative place. Conservative with a small ‘c’, that is. There are few actual Tories, of course. Instead it is a small town working class conservatism whose rallying cry glories in the phrase ‘it’s aye been!!’. Well, it may have ‘aye been’, but originality is the lifeblood of
Originals by Adam Grant Read More »
Let’s just imagine that the Greek work ‘demos’ (δῆμος) means ‘the people’ and the Greek word ‘kratos’ (Κράτος) means ‘power’. You might hope that ‘democracy’ in our modern world had come to mean ‘power of the people’, or that the will of the people should prevail. If it were only that simple! The will of
Democracy by Paul Cartledge Read More »
A recent discussion on Radio 4’s “All in the Mind” programme concerned wisdom. Is wisdom a state of mind or a trait? The podcast is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083p88h. A central topic in philosophy and religion, obviously, there always seem to be new ‘takes’ on what actually constitutes wisdom. It reminded me what a rich vein of reading
Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett Read More »
You may enjoy this compelling hybrid of memoir, narrative and philosophy. Previously the author of academic works (Thinking Through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition, 2014, and others), John Kaag (http://scholar.harvard.edu/jkaag/biocv) here teaches philosophy through narrative. It concerns the discovery of 10,000 books in a neglected building on the rural New Hampshire estate of William
American Philosophy by John Kaag Read More »
Many philosophers believe that free will is an illusion. It is an extraordinarily powerful illusion, which accounts for the fact that hardly anyone can bear to give it up. Even after being convinced by a series of cogent philosophical arguments, it will seem to a conscious agent that he is making genuine choices at points
Free Will and Consciousness by Gregg Caruso Read More »
An infant gurgling in its cot imagines that its nursery constitutes the whole world. The warm breast of its mother exists solely for its nurture. It takes a long series of painful adjustments to comprehend the immense scale of the world and diversity of other human beings, all with their individual motivations and interests which probably
The Age of Genius by Anthony Grayling Read More »
Atheism didn’t start with Charles Darwin, Bertrand Russell or Richard Dawkins in the modern era. Neither can any of Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Voltaire, Arthur Schopenhauer, or Friedrich Nietzsche take full credit for exposing the delusion of theism. Atheism began way back in antiquity, and has a long and distinguished pedigree. This superb book by Cambridge Professor of Greek Culture Tim Whitmarsh (http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/directory/professor-tim-whitmarsh) traces these
Battling the Gods by Tim Whitmarsh Read More »
Marilynne Robinson (born November 26, 1943, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/magazine/the-revelations-of-marilynne-robinson.html?_r=0 ) is an American novelist and essayist. She has received several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005 and the 2012 National Humanities Medal. One high profile admirer is Barack Obama. If ever there was a time when we should heed the voices of wisdom and compassion
The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson Read More »
