‘Fearless’ on stage − and in introspection.
Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Introspection, argument, exploring paradoxes: These are hallmarks of great artists, not just philosophers.
The most important part of knowledge, in Socrates’ view? Knowing how much you don’t know.
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Athens was deeply polarized over big-picture questions, and Socrates was never hesitant to question both sides’ assumptions – or his own.
Richard Price reading a letter dated 1784 from his friend, Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin West, National Library of Wales & Shutterstock
He was an important philosopher, mathematician and social reformer of his time. But Richard Price was subsequently written out of history.
A lithograph depicting Hegel with his students.
Franz Kugler
With the discovery of several thousand new pages of Hegel’s lecture notes, fans are hoping his famously tricky philosophy may become easier to understand – this expert isn’t so sure.
Firefighters and residents battle a blaze in hot, dry conditions in Athens, Greece, in August 2021.
AP Photo/Petros Karadjias
The Athens fires were a dangerous reflection of Atomist philosophies that see the world as exploitable, for sale and open to waste and abuse.
Beards? Yes. Masks? Perhaps not.
Wikimedia Commons
John Locke and John Stuart Mill don’t provide much in the way of justification for ignoring public health advice in a pandemic. Mikhail Bakunin, however…
Susan Stebbing’s 1939 work is just as relevant today as it was then.
National Portrait Gallery, London via Creative Commons
In our “post-truth” political era, there is a lot we can learn from an under-appreciated philosopher who focused on “thinking clearly.”
‘God, I’m just so bored.’
JeniFoto via Shutterstock
Over two centuries. the notion of boredom has shifted from an upper-class malady, through existential peril, to a functional emotion.
Visiting parents during the pandemic poses new risks.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
A mother with underlying conditions wants to hug her children even if means risking her own life with COVID-19. Should they abide by her wishes or keep their distance?
And you, do you apply the #stayhome principle that is displayed everywhere on social networks?
Lionel Bonaventure/AFP
Involving family and friends in decisions or rethinking the meaning of “getting back to normal” helps protect against cognitive bias and its harmful consequences.
Tipping from a social distance at The Lucky Devil strip club in Portland, Oregon.
Steve Dykes/Getty Images
Strippers, by the nature of their jobs, need to get close to others. Is there a way to do this safely during the coronavirus crisis?
A still from the 1963 film of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
British Lion Film Corporation
Thomas Hobbes wrote that humans are motivated by self-interest. Often that means working together for the benefit of all.
AVA Bitter via Shutterstock
Travel and philosophy have enjoyed a quiet love affair for centuries.
Read poetry.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash
From human suffering to political chicanery to environmental degradation, the tide of bad news, blared in headlines every day, seems overwhelming. One poet and classics scholar asks: What can be done?
John Stuart Mill.
The great thinker left thousands of comments in the margins of his personal library. Now these are being digitised and catalogued.
Shutterstock
“Critique of Black Reason” offers readers insight into how the construction of race and racism underpins our understanding of modernity.
How many times do we wonder, ‘what’s the right thing to do’?
Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA (Helping the homeless Uploaded by Gary Dee, via Wikimedia Commons
A scholar suggests a few approaches that have withstood the test of time.
The statue of Marcus Aurelius Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.
Jeff
A philosopher explains how to learn from the stoicism of Roman philosophers to cope with present-day troubles.