Plato, Socrates and Aristotle wrestled with the concept of akrasia –whether it’s possible to act against what you know to be good Sign up for Well Actually, a free weekly newsletter about hea...
https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/mar/21/why-we-do-things-bad-for-us-impulse-habits-akrasia
Authors from Jonathan Swift to NoViolet Bulawayo show how much can be done with what might sound a narrow form – and how much fun can be had with it I used to think that the allegory was a ra...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/18/top-10-allegories
Millions have watched Netflix hit Ancient Apocalypse, which is just the latest interpretation of an enduring tale. But in its appeal to ‘race science’ it’s more than merely controversial ...
Playwright Howard Brenton asks why ancient Athens turned on its famous citizen, and how such an uncompromising free-thinker might fare in our own ‘age of rage’ Did Socrates “cancel” him...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/26/cancelling-socrates-howard-brenton
We’ve become convinced that if we can eat more healthily, we will be morally better people. But where does this idea come from? Near the end of the hellish first year of the coronavirus pande...
A pair of London youth workers have created a new video series that aims to enliven philosophical concepts with the energy of drill music Before coronavirus put the UK into lockdown, writer and...
From Arthurian feasts to awkward moments with Ian McEwan and mealtime at the Macbeths, these miniature dramas are literary staples. Tuck in Life is full of stresses: death; divorce; disasters, ...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/11/top-10-dinner-parties-in-fiction
To walk or not to walk, that is the question. What would Aristotle, Plato and Kant have done had they felt a nick? By Anthony McGowan for The Nightwatchman It has been a frustrating season....
We recommend novels that reveal the kindness of strangers and leave you with a sense of hope Q: CAN YOU RECOMMEND ANY GOOD UTOPIAN NOVELS FOR THESE DYSTOPIAN TIMES? Rene Hofmann, 54, Switzerlan...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/23/utopian-novels-for-dystopian-times
The rule of cynics and nihilists has led us to a dangerous place, where everything from healthcare to wind farms is declared intrusive, big-state meddling Imaginary perfect societies are everywh...
Does the modern world prevent most people from living and working in the way suited to them? What is the right way for human beings to live? The question is as old as human beings, and it would...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/09/the-right-life-remo-h-largo-review
In the age of Trump and Brexit, some people say that democracy is fatally flawed and we should be ruled by ‘those who know best’. Here’s why that’s not very clever Democracy is tired, v...
Academic philosophers call on Amber Rudd to reconsider decision to refuse Pakistani’s request for asylum on the grounds that he did not mention Plato and Aristotle when questioned about humanis...
AC GRAYLING responds to Giles Fraser’s article about ‘patronising elites’; while DEBORAH COOK says Fraser ignored the fact that Plato thought truth was paramount I write in response to Gil...
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/27/ac-grayling-our-right-to-good-government
Grayling revives a fear of the mob that’s as old as Plato. Brexit convinced our elite that ordinary people were not intelligent enough to know what’s best for them Plato famously insisted t...
As another school year begins, here is some of the most instructive reading about this toughest of subjects — from Plato to Shakespeare and beyond As a rule, I try to avoid blogs and books ab...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/06/top-10-books-about-teaching
Fun is vulgar, immediate, democratic – and it defies the earnest powers that set out quite deliberately to make people miserable I was at the women’s march in London on 21 January. On the ...
For the ancient Greeks, politics was way of life. We could learn from them In the annals of modern democracy, 2016 has been pretty eventful. For some in Britain and the US, it has been a great y...
This much-anticipated sequel to The Dream of Reason overturns our thinking about such major philosophers as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. They still have much to tell us There was a time when ever...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/05/dream-enlightenment-anthony-gottlieb-review
In the era of the smartphone, London cabbies are going to keep committing every last alley to memory. It might seem pointless, but we gain insight as well as information by exercising the memory ...