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 […]

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

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

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

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

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

Neuroscience and discussions about the brain and consciousness are powering ahead at a fomidable pace. It’s hard to keep up without being involved full time in the research. Here, though, is a book from 2014 which will take you to the cutting edge. Stanislas Dehaene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislas_Dehaene and http://www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-stanislas-dehaene/#|m=#course|) describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs