From the tens of thousands of books and papers on human evolution, where should one start? I would recommend Robin Dunbar’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Dunbar) 2014 introduction Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction. The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did we alone survive? […]
To kick off 2015 why not head for London – in a work of fiction that is? In this first novel by Tom Grass, Oliver Twist is brought up to date. Eighteen-year-old Twist, one of the most daring street artists in London, doesn’t have much. No money, no home and no family. When he finds
It’s an ingenious, if risky, premise to propose to tell the story of a single season in a single year that will somehow illuminate the character of a nation. Other years have their own popularity – 1922 as the ‘year of modernism’ perhaps, or 1963 as the year ‘sex began’ (according to Philip Larkin). Narrowing
One Summer: America 1927 Read More »
Adrian William Moore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._W._Moore_(philosopher) and http://users.ox.ac.uk/~shug0255/) studied under Michael Dummett and is President of The Aristotelian Society (2014-2015). He has published (1990) The Infinite (London: Routledge). A revised second edition, with a new preface, was published in 2001. (1997) Points of View (Oxford: Oxford University Press) (2003) Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty: Themes and
The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics by Adrian Moore Read More »
Scientist, mathematician, traveller, soldier, and spy – Rene Descartes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes) has been called the ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’. Born in 1596 into an era still dominated by the medieval world view, he was one of the chief actors in the riveting intellectual drama that ushered in the modern world. His life coincided with an extraordinarily significant
Descartes by Bernard Williams Read More »
Have you ever wondered whether your ethical life is all it should be? Have you wondered upon what foundation it should be built? Julia Annas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Annas and http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jannas/) offers her own account of, and defence of, a theoretical approach known as ‘Virtue Ethics‘ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics). Intelligent Virtue (2011) presents a distinctive new account of virtue and happiness as central
Intelligent Virtue by Julia Annas Read More »
Have you enjoyed a laugh over Christmas and the New Year? Did you ever wonder why no other animal seems to have a chuckle? By contrast, humour is a universal feature of human life. It has been discovered in every known human culture, and thinkers have discussed it for over two thousand years. Why do we have
Humour: A Very Short Introduction by Noel Carroll Read More »
Evil is not the most comfortable subject to consider. Apart from its inherently unsettling nature, a short effort at reflection quickly reveals some serious problems in trying to conceptualise the phenomenon. In the literature there are two main contentions. 1) Evil is a deficiency of goodness. In the human moral sphere it is the failure to act well. Sins
On Evil by Adam Morton Read More »
Here we are at the shortest day 2014. As the year ends the plaintive cries are familiar -‘Where has the time gone? Just whizzed by. Been busier than ever, what with paying the mortgage, full time job, social whirl, taxi service for the kids, the tyranny of the smartphone, the superfluity of entertainment options. Better that
The Universe by John Brockman Read More »
