Plato
The pedant’s progress through history
The pompous know-it-all despised by classical philosophers became a stock comic character of 16th-century theatre – and finally a bore to be pitied
The enduring lure of Atlantis
Damian Le Bas goes in search of the fabled city beneath the waves in an attempt to overcome the grief of losing his father
Finding your other half in ancient Athens
According to Aristophanes, human beings were two-bodied before Zeus split them – which is why we spend our lives perpetually searching for our missing partner
Flaubert, snow, poverty, rhythm … the random musings of Anne Carson
It is thrillingly difficult to keep one’s balance in Carson’s topsy-turvy world as she meditates on a wide range of subjects in poetry, pictures and prose
Is writing now changing the world for the worse?
Humanity’s great civilising accomplishment may have slipped the leash. Computer programs and surveillance also involve ‘writing’, potentially making us decreasingly human
Cher options
The singer Cher, now 75, has announced that, because she refuses to appear old, she is not going to allow…
Plato the censor
The Globe theatre’s project to ‘decolonise’ Shakespeare, as if that would make plays like The Tempest ‘acceptable’ to them and…
As a matter of curse
Twitter and other easily accessible means of online communication have encouraged the public to believe that Their Voice Will Be…
Respect vs rigour
Professor Toope, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge university, had proposed a motion ordering all members of the university to ‘respect’ each…
Plato beats the pundit
Today presenter Nick Robinson has been reflecting on the political interview. He contrasts his interviews with scientists about Covid with…
Too clever by half
Organs of the press are filled with opinion pages. The sublime confidence about Covid with which commentators advance these opinions,…
Home-schooling, Plato style
Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…
High life
Look at it this way: we’re all doing Desert Island Discs nowadays, and unless you’ve got the bug, it’s a…
Does ‘equality’ mean the same to Rebecca Long-Bailey as it did to Plato?
The candidates battling for the leadership of the Labour party never stop banging on about ‘social justice’ and ‘equality’. But…
Extinction Rebellion proves Aristotle was right about the follies of youth
Extinction Rebellion is blocking the streets again, foolishly demanding the impossible on a very important issue. But what does one…
Socrates the romantic hero?
If western philosophy is no more than ‘footnotes to Plato’, so, arguably, is the myth of its founding hero, Socrates.…
Health and personal choice
Public health specialist Sir Michael Marmot has blamed ‘the cuts’ for the rise in dementia among the elderly, resulting in…
People power then and now
It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…
Quintilian on lecturers
Professor Louise Richardson, Oxford’s new vice-chancellor, is worried about a new government plan to judge teaching quality. Her reason is…
Drinking at school with Plato
Rugby and Ampleforth schools have decided to give their charges experience of sensible drinking by introducing a little alcohol, under…
Plato and think-tanks
In Living with Difference, a think-tank report on the problems raised by a multi-faith UK, the chair Baroness Butler-Sloss says…
Spellbinding stuff
With the briefest of introductions to each chapter, it is up to the reader to decide how they want to…
Party-naming with Plato
In order to make a sensible choice of new leader, the Labour party is trying to work out what its…
Start-up culture in Ancient Greece
Honduras wants to establish start-up cities to experiment with alternative economic, regulatory, and legal systems. Could this concept help stop…
