Bold new claims about esoteric doctrines in the works of Plato have stirred a global debate in ancient scholarship and philosophy. Manchester University’s Jay Kennedy published a paper in the leading journal Apeiron claiming that…
The lives of others
War is losing the battle for hearts and minds. Never very popular, the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to be seen as ever more futile, expensive and interminable. As increasing numbers of young…
Q&A: Gary Cox
Is this the book that puts “self” back into “self help”? Absolutely. Self-help needs reviving. We all need helping sometimes but too many people today think society has more responsibility to help them than they…
The thick of it
Michael Sandel tells Julian Baggini why he wants a more faith-friendly politics 2009 was a breakthrough year for Michael Sandel. The Harvard political philosopher has been at the top of his profession ever since the…
Thank goodness for Dan
Conquest, war, famine and death. It’s an interesting parlour game to decide which of the new atheism’s “four horsemen” – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens – best corresponds to their apocalyptic…
Let’s talk about love
I’ve got to admit I was a somewhat reluctant interviewer of the man who spends his life running Socrates Cafés: philosophical dialogues in public spaces with whoever wants to come and join in. The last…
Word of Mouse
The story goes that when the Roman horsemen first saw Pyrrhus’ twenty war elephants, at the battle of Heraclea in 280 BCE, they were so terrorised by these strange creatures, which they had never seen…
My philosophy: Ziauddin Sardar
Ziauddin Sardar tells Julian Baggini about his philosophical and spiritual development. In Britain, describing yourself as a public intellectual sounds too pretentious by half. Like “polymath”, it is only an acceptable description if offered by…
Ioanna Kuçuradi on the marriage of rigour and…
Recent World Congresses of Philosophy have often talked about “Philosophy Facing World Problems”, as the theme of the 2003 Istanbul meeting put it. But although the subject has talked the talk, there are reasons to…