Tim Madigan on what philosophy means to him. “Food, glorious food!What wouldn’t we give forThat extra bit more –That’s all that we live forWhy should we be fated toDo nothing but broodOn food,Magical food,Wonderful food,Marvelous food,Fabulous food!”‘Food, Glorious Food’ from the musical Oliver! It has been my great fortune to write a regular column for […]
Food, Glorious Food For Thought Read More »
Thomas Morrison looks hard at Michel Foucault’s problem with science. “… discourses themselves are neither true nor false”(Power/Knowledge, p.118) “The confession [is] the general standard governing the production of the true discourse on sex”(History of Sexuality Vol. I, p.63) Flamboyant French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) is as well known for his historical analyses of criminality,
Foucault’s Elephant Read More »
Mike Austin listens to Bono while reading Kierkegaard, and discovers that they have the same soul. The death of his mother had a huge impact on him and on the substance of his writings. He became disenchanted with organized religion, harshly criticizing it while at the same time embracing a personal faith in God. In
We Get To Carry Each Other: U2 and Kierkegaard on Authentic Love Read More »
Felicity Joseph finds that sometimes it’s hard to become a woman. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”Simone de Beauvoir Generally for existentialists, one is not born anything: everything we are is the result of our choices, as we build ourselves out of our own resources and those which society gives us. We
Becoming A Woman: Simone de Beauvoir on Female Embodiment Read More »
Peter Mullen explores the argument that by definition, God exists. In one form the Ontological Argument for God is basically the argument: 1) God is by definition the perfect being; 2) It is more perfect for a perfect thing to exist than not exist; 3) Therefore God exists. This argument for the existence of God
The Ontological Argument Revisited Read More »
Nobody ever put food on the table by worrying about the notion of authenticity… or did they? Gordon Giles on authentic culinary performance. Here we have a recipe for Spaghetti alla Carbonara – a Roman dish, whose flavour is owed mainly to the ingredient known both to us and Italians as pancetta. Camisa explains: “Pancetta
A Recipe for Authenticity Read More »
Karen Parham asks how close Western philosophy gets to Buddhism. Why did René Descartes (1596-1650) name his famous treatise Meditations on First Philosophy? Broadly speaking, ‘to meditate’ means ‘to think deeply about something’ (OED). Although Descartes probably meant the word in this general sense, I would like to look at whether his method, and Western
Meditating with Descartes Read More »
Matei Tanasă asks if we should love the unlovable. Do all people deserve to be loved? To be able to answer such a question, we must first understand its meaning. So first, what is love? The common view regarding love meets Plato’s view on it quite nicely. His view as elaborated in his dialogues Phaedo
The Unlovable Parts of a Loving Society Read More »
Van Harvey reflects on Huxley’s and Clifford’s reasons for not believing. In the struggle against obscurantism and the appeal to blind faith that was rampant in Victorian culture, it would be difficult to find two greater champions of restraint on unfounded opinions and beliefs than W.K. Clifford (1845-1879) and T.H. Huxley (1825-1895). Moreover, both of
Huxley’s Agnosticism Read More »
Jessie Burdick wonders whether it is cheating for athletes to take dietary supplements, and we ask you, the reader, to tell us what you think. What would you be willing to do to become a professional athlete? This is a question that demands more than a fleeting thought, because not only will becoming a successful professional
Sports and Drugs (and rock and roll?) Read More »