Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture – Once upon a time
Toni Morrison gives one of the most extraordinary Nobel lectures ever heard. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. While her lecture,
The best thing for being sad
The best thing for being sad is, Merlyn tells Wart, something that the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, and never dream of regretting
Fascisms: then, and now? Arendt and The Origins of Totalitarianism
Re-reading Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism is something of a wake-up call. Some of the evidence from her book, makes for a chilling comparison with current political episodes.
Memory in Montréal: on (re)capturing Leonard Cohen
Memory can place us in time and space, can make us feel at home, it can transport us. In doing so memory can hide things we really should see.
What is a University?
When medievals first spoke of university they were referring not so much to institutions as to people.
Gillian Rose: Fascism and representation
‘Not in my name’ is and is not in my name In her essay ‘The Future of Auschwitz’, Gillian Rose describes two obvious reactions provoked
the unexamined life is not worth living
the unexamined life is not worth living Socrates (Plato, 1997, 33) The unexamined life is not worth living is perhaps Socrates’ most famous quote and
Socrates On Trial
Socrates is perhaps the most famous philosophical figure of the last 2,500 years. If you are new to philosophy then you will come to see
Žižek on the history of humanity and violence
Couldn’t the entire history of humanity be seen as a growing normalisation of injustice, entailing the nameless and faceless suffering of millions?
Wherein Lies the Value of Art? Clive Bell’s Radical Aesthetic Vision
The British philosopher and art critic Clive Bell (1881-1964) was a prominent proponent of the formalist approach to aesthetics. In this specific sense, he advocated
Is uni worth it? What’s the point of Higher Education?
Undeserving of the light of higher education, no wonder… In 1690 the philosopher John Locke famously wrote ‘The candle that is set up in us,
The Souls of White Folk
This assumption that of all the hues of God whiteness alone is inherently and obviously better than brownness or tan leads to curious acts.
Distorted Rhetoric and Forgotten Principles: How AOC is Reviving Oratory in the US
There are parallels to be made between the shape of democracy in Athens all those years ago and that of US politics today. In the same manner that rhetoric took principal place in determining the outcome of the socio-economic structures of the Athenian city-state, so too have we witnessed the undeniable power that rhetoric continues to possess in the present-day.
What did Max Weber mean by the ‘spirit’ of capitalism?
Max Weber’s famous text The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) is surely one of the most misunderstood of all the canonical works
Paul Rée, Nietzsche, and the Myth of Libertas
In 1878 Nietzsche wrote a letter to Paul Rée (1849-1901) in which he declared: ‘All my friends are now agreed that my book [Human, All-Too-Human]
Gillian Rose: To be a philosopher you need three things
Gillian Rose Quote: What do you need to be a philosopher? You discover that you are a philosopher: it is not something you ever become.
Durkheim’s Anomie in a Time of Crisis
Durkheim formulated his concept of anomie in his doctoral dissertation, The Division of Labour in Society, published in 1893. The word ‘anomie’ comes from the
Camus’ The Plague: Contagion, confinement and complicity
Camus’ The Plague (La Peste) is one of the most famous novels penetrating the heart of the world’s current pandemic.
Noam Chomsky: Coronavirus – What is at stake?
Noam Chomsky speaks to Srecko Horvat of DiEM25 on the impact and concerns of Covid-19. In this wide ranging conversation Noam reflects on his own
For Nietzsche, life’s ultimate question was: ‘Does it dance?’
Friedrich Nietzsche’s body of work is notoriously difficult to navigate. He wrote in multiple styles, including essays, aphorisms, poems, and fiction. He introduced idiosyncratic concepts
Where Do We Go From Here? | Rutger Bregman
In this animated short author and historian Rutger Bregman (Utopia for Realists), speaks about how our perception of humanity limits what we think is possible
Philosophy and the Liberal Arts
This image of Philosophy and the Liberal Arts is perhaps the most iconic of liberal arts education. But what does it mean?
Humanities and Sound: International Conference
The 3rd International Conference Around the Humanities, focusing on the theme of Sound, will take place in Krakow on 30-31 May 2020. Submissions are invited
Personality is not only about who but also where you are
What if patience, and maybe other personality features too, are more a product of where we are than who we are?
What is Education for? A rare look at higher education in prison
Research shows that education is prison can be life changing. For the incarcerated education teaches a deep lesson in freedom.
We need to talk about trees
Trees are now a matter of politics. And we are learning that trees do more than previously thought. They are in fact a source of hope.
The New Dark Age
Hope is above all ‘a state of mind … it is a dimension of the soul … It is an orientation of the spirit’
The Science and Culture of Health, Strength, and Beauty
Plato speaks of the three physical virtues—health, strength, and beauty—as joining to form one chorus with the virtues of the soul—piety, courage, temperance, and justice.
Liberal Education Student Conference
The Fifth European Liberal Education Student Conference will take place 14th-17th May 2020 and will be hosted by the European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Educating for Freedom: in praise of Freire
What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.
Richard Feynman: a lecture on Time
It is obvious to everybody that the phenomena of the world are evidently
irreversible. Things happen that do not happen the other way. You drop a cup and it breaks, and you can sit there a long time waiting for the pieces to come together and jump back into your hand.
Hegel and Martin Luther King
Hegel and Martin Luther King shared a deep understanding of profound change. There can be nothing new without a struggle with the old. And they might be telling us something important about right now
Socrates in love: how the ideas of this woman are at the root of Western philosophy
Socrates is a foundational figure of Western philosophy. New research explores if his ideas about truth, love, justice, courage and knowledge were born out of his relationship with a fiercely intelligent woman, Aspasia of Miletus.