Sally Latham shows how Hume’s views on causality really take the biscuit. Hume is usually seen as the champion of the anti-metaphysical stance. In Section I of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding he says metaphysics is “not properly a science,” and seeks to “penetrate into subjects utterly inaccessible to the understanding” (p.11, OUP edition). In …
Howard Darmstadter looks at the life and legacy of the incendiary tercentenarian. In 1734, David Hume, a bookish 23-year-old Scotsman, abandoned conventional career options and went off to France to Think Things Over. Living frugally and devoting himself to study and writing, he returned after three years with a hefty manuscript under his arm. Published …
Is George W. Bush a serial killer? Terri Murray attacks the death penalty with the help of two prisoners executed by the state – Socrates and Jesus. Then one ought not return injustice for injustice or do ill to any man, no matter what one may suffer at their hands. Look to this, Crito. Do …
Grahame Lockey writes pithy observations to make you think about pithy observations to make you think. I once sat down to write a poem. Four words into it, I realised it was complete. It didn’t want a title, it wanted to be left alone: Absence begins at home. I didn’t know what it was that …
Harry Drummond builds a case. What is the meaning of life? Does God exist? How ought I treat another person? What are the conditions of knowledge acquisition? Engaging, fundamental, and worthy – these sorts of questions are the typical buildings blocks of conversation when a philosopher is asked ‘What do you do?’. What is the …
We take their money, their freedom, sometimes their lives, but opinions differ over exactly what we are trying to achieve, how we should go about it and what justifies it anyway. Jane Forsey on the punishment of criminals. “The problem of justifying punishment….may really be that of justifying our particular symbols of infamy”Joel Feinberg When …
James Gallant, writer, reflects on the psychology of creativity. I have been writing fiction, prose-poetry, and essays for a long time now, whenever the business of staying alive has allowed. I have published quite a lot, including four books (well, three now, one having been delisted by its publisher for lack of sales). I do …
Michael Mocatta finds a practical aid for recovery from addiction in a philosophy of extreme experience. Georges Bataille (1897-1962) had a difficult childhood. In this article I will seek to explain this French philosopher’s thinking, and in particular his conception of extreme exterior experiences and sacred inner ones. We’ll see how Bataille writes of his …
Mike Sutton gives us his present interpretation of Derrida’s traces. Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) is a philosopher everybody has heard of, but few non-specialists can manage to read; a clear case of ‘many are called but few are chosen’. Opinions of him range from those who say he is one of the greatest philosophers of the …
Rick Lewis asks Elliot Paul and Christine Battersby what’s new in this fascinating field. How can you be more creative? What is the connection between creativity and inspiration? Where do inspirations come from? The novelist Terry Pratchett, who knew a thing or two about imagination, had an amusing theory about this, as follows: “Little particles …