Yolanda De Iuliis looks at how Roman Mithraism incorporated Stoic philosophy. Mithraism’s adoption and integration of Stoic virtues is compelling and noteworthy. These virtues not only shaped the ...

Not so fast. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (35-95 CE) would say to all this noise: “Been there, done that.” The notion that rhetoric or speech-making is at the center of public life and therefore should ...

Chris Wright ponders Plato’s masterplan. One of the purposes of Plato’s Republic is to put forth a conception of the ‘just state’. Plato describes how such a state would be organized, who would govern ...

Tim Madigan on September 11th and on a longshoreman who understood the psychology of mass movements. After the initial horrified reaction I experienced on September 11th, my first question was: How ...

Dr E. R. Klein says we should reconsider the value of space exploration and start getting ready to leave the nest. Everyone is familiar with the giant stone heads of Easter Island, a tiny and remote ...

Stephen Leach considers what Bertrand Russell thought about common sense & reality – and how the one does not necessarily show you the other. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) believed that reality is ...

Nick Bostrom tells us a philosophical parable about death. Once upon a time the world was tyrannized by a great dragon. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and was covered with thick ...

Jesse Prinz argues that the source of our moral inclinations is merely cultural. Suppose you have a moral disagreement with someone, for example, a disagreement about whether it is okay to live in a ...

Jim Moran explains why saving the planet will be an uphill struggle. The recent development of the branch of philosophy called ‘environmental philosophy’, or as it is sometimes referred to, ...

The following answers to this central philosophical question each win a random book. Sorry if your answer doesn’t appear: we received enough to fill twelve pages… Why are we here? Do we serve a ...

Stuart Greenstreet explains how analytical philosophy got into a mess. This year’s centenary of the First World War coincides with Ludwig Wittgenstein beginning writing his Tractatus ...

Philippa Foot has for decades been one of Oxford’s best-known and most original ethicists. Her groundbreaking papers won her worldwide recognition but at the dawn of the new century she has finally ...