Reading Camus

Author and philosopher Albert Camus died in a car crash in 1960, aged just 46 but the existential, moral and political issues Camus’ writings address still trouble us today.

Beasts, slaves and Gods

Aristotle’s seminal work on “Politics” contains wisdom and warnings for our modern age in which the promise of a technological utopia is being used to normalise jaw dropping disempowerment and inequality.

Words as weapons of control

The pen may still be mightier than the sword, but that’s not always a good thing as a swathe of authoritarian populists in democratic states are twisting words into weapons to blur moral boundaries and bludgeon the truth into submission.

The long shadow of Mussolini

This Monday marks 80 years since Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was killed in an Italian village towards the end of the Second World War in 1945, so what lessons can be learned as authoritarianism returns to dominate the world today?

A toast to Pyrrho’s Hog

Montaigne was the first essayist, and perhaps the first modern philosopher, who used the different schools of post-platonic Greek thought to turn the lens of philosophy not on the world, but on himself.

Philosophy as a way of life

The most life-changing books can seem like they have always been there. What they say may seem obvious, once we’ve read them, but that’s only because they’ve reshaped how we look at things.

The proper study of man

The term ‘humanism’ has meant many things over the ages, and understanding its evolution offers insight into both the history of philosophy and the

A curious mind

Michel de Montaigne was perhaps the first, and is certainly the greatest, essayist of all. Rather than contemplate the mysteries of the universe, he turned his attention to the human condition, and so remains as pertinent today as he was almost half a millennium ago.

The face of evil

Adolf Eichmann presented himself as a petty apolitical bureaucrat following orders in a vain attempt to escape the gallows, but his own words revealed him to be a ruthless ideologue committed to the Nazi regime and its ghastly goal of annihilation.

The comforts of solitude

Over the past seven months, many of us have got closer to experiencing the kind of solitude long sought by monks, nuns, philosophers and misanthropes. For some, this has brought loneliness, but religions and literature have a rich tradition exploring the benefits of being alone.

How old ideas about tolerance can help us live more peacefully today

In the wake of the tragic attack in Christchurch, and the wider rise of anti-liberal forces, the answers to today’s urgent questions around tolerance may be found in the past.