One familiar definition of a metaphor is that it is essentially a figure of speech which uses one thing to mean another by ...

We live in the era of the global free market. Or do we? And now that the Cold War is over, why are the arms manufacturers still looking so prosperous? Political theorist Noam Chomsky thinks he knows ...

Friedrich Nietzsche has been read and assessed differently by many commentators and students. Some consider that he was the first existentialist, putting forward ideas and arguments that were later ...

Roy Turner scorns the fact that after Duchamp, critics have questioned the status of ‘traditional’ Western art, making the act of designation the sole determinant of art. In hearing the music of the ...

Shawn Thompson follows legal efforts in the U.S. and Argentina to win rights for apes, exploring arguments about morality and autonomy along the way. Don’t worry. It may not be the beginning of the ...

Raymond Tallis on the true mystery of memory. Regular readers of this column will know that despite my background in neuroscience, I am not persuaded that brain activity is a sufficient explanation of ...

In recent years, amidst a backdrop of growing secularization and cultural diversity, atheism has emerged as an prominent ...

Ralph Blumenau considers the long and distinguished history of Jewish Philosophy. This massive book, consisting of contributions from 35 scholars, is obviously a valuable and learned resource for ...

Ellen Grabiner ponders the bearable lightness of being a Pinhead. In the recently-surfaced spate of anthologies, books, and magazine articles which have spotlighted the phenomenon of the superhero, ...

Mark Daniels introduces the most famous work of Moses Maimonides and asks – was he a philosopher, a heretic or a mystic? Moses Maimonides (Moses the son of Maimon – or the RaMBaM – Rabbi Moses ben ...

For instance, God is a pure perfect intelligence – almost by definition as ‘the personal creator’. If he were only ...

J.J.C. Smart investigates the meaning of purpose. It can be tempting to suppose that those who agonize about ‘The Meaning of Life’ are the victims of a simple use-mention confusion, that is, confusing ...