A Clue to the Nature of Man: the Symbol
June 16, 2021
Ernst Cassirer— In the human world we find a new characteristic which appears to be the distinctive mark of human life. The functional circle of man is not only quantitively… READ MORE
Tag: philosophy
A Secular Miracle
March 4, 2021
Peter E. Gordon— In 1770, the empress Maria Theresa summoned to the Viennese court an imperial counselor named Wolfgang von Kempelen, a man from the Hungarian city of Pressburg who… READ MORE
Are They Not Mad?
January 29, 2021
Jonathan Rée— Without books, according to Hobbes, we could not be ‘excellently wise’, but on the other hand we would not be ‘excellently foolish’ either. “They which trust to books,… READ MORE
What Kind of Life Are We Saving?
August 7, 2020
Bernard-Henri Lévy— The only debate that has truly engaged Europe and the United States is the one about the comparative vices and virtues of the Korean and Chinese, Thai or… READ MORE
What Is Wisdom?
February 19, 2020
Giambattista Vico— Wisdom is the faculty that commands all the disciplines; by these, all the sciences and arts that complete our humanity are apprehended. Plato defines wisdom as that which is… READ MORE
France and the Self
February 11, 2020
James Livesey— The history of the self is vitally important, and the contrast between the French and British histories is highly instructive. The self, or at least the version of… READ MORE
Why Liberalism Failed
February 20, 2019
Patrick J. Deneen— A political philosophy conceived some 500 years ago, and put into effect at the birth of the United States nearly 250 years later, was a wager that… READ MORE
Understanding Empathy
December 21, 2018
Susan Lanzoni— “Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” asked the philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers in 1998, considering the case of Otto, a… READ MORE
The Future of War
June 30, 2018
A.C. Grayling— The history of drones is surprisingly long, as a special form of ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’ (UAV) long since developed to undertake tasks considered ‘too dull, dirty or dangerous’… READ MORE
Inside Our Awakening Universe
November 17, 2017
John F. Haught— Scientists now know that the universe is a story still unfolding. Geology, biology, cosmology, and other sciences have demonstrated that our Big Bang universe is almost 14… READ MORE
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