Philosophy
Guardians of an ideal
The French have always favoured grand, elegant abstractions about the human condition, says Ruth Scurr. It’s part of their national identity
Curious shades of Browne
On the evening of 10 March 1804, Samuel Taylor Coleridge settled at a desk in an effort to articulate what…
Voting for heroes
To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…
All in the mind
Big event. A new play from Sir Tom. And he tackles one of philosophy’s oldest and crunchiest issues, which varsity…
Middle Age cred
Sean McGlynn is delighted by a cultural journey through the Middle Ages, replete with philosophy, heresy and mysticism
Existential threat
In the endless game of word association that governs vocabulary, the current favourite as a partner of existential is threat.…
A heterodox understanding of Jesus
When James Carroll was a boy, lying on the floor watching television, he would glance up at his mother and…
Off the beaten track
Vincent Deary is a therapist, and this book is the first part of a trilogy. How We Are is about…
Sacred hunger
Atheists are blind to a fundamental human need
Socrates on Maria Miller
Our former culture secretary, Maria Miller, is still apparently baffled at the fuss created by her fighting to the last…
Blue-sky thinking
‘Life is bristling with thorns,’ Voltaire observed in 1769, ‘and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden.’…
The mask of truth
Siri Hustvedt’s new novel isn’t exactly an easy read — but the casual bookshop browser should be reassured that it’s…
Serious fun
Media moguls aren’t philosophers. So it’s time for philosophers to become media moguls
The great pamphlet war
What is the origin of left and right in politics? The traditional answer is that these ideas derive from the…
My companion for life
There are books we read for pleasure and there are books we are paid to review. However enjoyable the books…
The stoic approach
A friend of mine who works for the NHS has been told recently by a superior that his ‘attention to…
