A new book follows four women philosophers through ten of the worst years in the 20th century, spanning 1933, the year Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, to the thick of the second world war.
Jean-Paul Sartre in Rome, September 1978.
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What can you do when you feel like a failure for giving up on a dream?
Philosophical pessimism isn’t all doom and gloom: it’s about explaining and confronting the origins, prevalence and the ubiquity of suffering.
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Pessimism, as explored by the philosopher Schopenhauer, offers tools to come to terms with the idea that refusing to relentlessly pursue happiness is perhaps the most reasonable attitude.
‘Moby-Dick’ inspired the Warner Brothers film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab – and perhaps can inspire readers today amid the climate crisis.
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Artist Edvard Munch depicted despair provoked by disease in turn-of-the-century works. In these coronavirus times, his iconic image speaks to our anxieties about illness and societal collapse.
Concepts from Buddhism can provide us with some solace during this pandemic. By thinking like a Buddhist we can focus on existential facts, aiming to understand them and to practise meditation.
Centuries after Dante, it’s surprising to find the afterlife back, and winning awards as a successful series.
Here, from left to right, actors Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, and Ted Danson.
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Three philosophers put up a booth at the entrance to a New York City subway, so people could come to them with questions. They got hit with some real zingers.
When it comes to urban planning, the question is not so much how to physically plan our cities differently. Rather, the question is how to convince both the public and our politicians to implement change.
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City planners and politicians have pitched carbon emission reduction as an individual choice but this leads to green gentrification and fails to make broad changes. We need a new guiding philosophy.
Some scientists claim a pill that would have us living healthier lives for longer is less than a generation away. But many philosophers argue extended life may not be as good as it sounds.
Giving, or contributing, beyond ourselves is one of the strongest predictors of happiness and health.
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A philosophy based on giving of ourselves to others may help us live more meaningful and fulfilling lives, while helping to bridge the extremes of our emotions and beliefs.
On 7 February 1946 we find J Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, writing a letter to “Special Agent in Charge” at the New York field office, to draw his attention to one ALBERT CANUS, who is “reportedly…
A student came up to me after class the other day and said, “So what is this ‘Becksistentialism’ all about then?” I want to begin to answer that question by defining the negative: Sir Alex Ferguson is…