Aristotle
Keir Starmer and the ancient question of word vs deed
Sir Keir Starmer said that Britain had come to a fork in the road. As usual, he took it –…
What Aristotle would have made of Gregg Wallace
The BBC chef Gregg Wallace has been sacked for his objectionable behaviour over many years, but has blamed the BBC…
The abortion debate is as old as time
Now that parliament has decided to decriminalise abortion, it is interesting to see what the ancients made of the matter.…
Aristotle and the leisurely pursuit of education
Nearly six million people are on out-of-work benefits. It is claimed that, for most of those, going back to work…
We are all people of faith, whether we realise it or not
Reason, narrowly framed, will never reveal the world to us. A better path involves reason harnessed to our ethical and aesthetic impulses, argues Alister McGrath
Aristotle’s advice for young protestors
In his Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle (384-322 bc) sets about identifying the various headings under which you can be persuasive…
Were the Greeks right about justice?
The Sentencing Council, consisting of various legal authorities, has told judges and magistrates to consider, when sentencing the young, their…
Are we finally beginning to understand gravity?
Claudia de Rham explores the true nature of this fundamental force as she struggles against received wisdom to get a new theory of ‘massive gravity’ recognised
All work and no play is dulling our senses
Ancient Greek philosophers reckoned that life was all about free time, but 16th-century puritanism dealt a blow to the old festive culture from which we’ve never fully recovered
The balance of power between humans and machines
Robert Skidelsky dismisses the possibility of our annihilation by a superintelligent computer system, since ‘science tells us that we cannot create such a being’. But does it?
Circular arguments
Aristotle had long proved that the Earth was spherical, and even the illiterate masses of early medieval Europe were aware of the fact, says James Hannam
Truss and the art of rhetoric
Liz Truss was spot-on in arguing that the only way in which a state can flourish is by combining low…
A sentimental journey
Publishers lately seem to have got the idea that otherwise uncommercial subjects might be rendered sexy if presented with a…
Tyrants past and present
Is Putin a tyrant? Aristotle (384-322 bc) might well have thought so. Seeing the turannos as a deviant type of…
High life
New York Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project…
High life
New York It’s party time in the Bagel, and it’s about time, too. Good restaurants and elegant nightclubs are…
Prophet of disenchantment
Astonishing where an idea can lead you. You start with something that 800 years hence will sound like it’s being…
High life
Gstaad Imagine a beautiful, sexy woman, an Ava Gardner or a Lily James, with a wart on the end of…
Trump’s revenge
Donald Trump may be a narcissist, but since he is not mentally ill in the technical sense, he is not…
Living in hope
The gloom that envelopes the Labour party stands in strong contrast to the confidence and hope that the Prime Minister…
How to deal with Brexit anger, according to the ancients
Sir Philip Pullman, tweeting that thoughts of hanging the PM came to mind after the decision to prorogue parliament, later…
Do animals really have feelings? Plutarch thought so
Whatever the government decides about post-EU regulations on animal sentience, the Greek biographer and essayist Plutarch (died c. ad 120)…
Rome, racism and Sadiq Khan
‘Racism’ refers to the belief in racially determined inferiority, most often recognised in body-type, about which, by definition, nothing can…
Among the snobs, slobs and scolds
The author of this jam-packed treasure trove has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000 and…
