Michael Gracey looks at how philosophers have pursued happiness. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), whose theology was Unitarian, edited an abridged version of the New Testament that stripped the gospels ...

‘More songs about Buildings and Food’ was the title of a 1978 album by the rock band Talking Heads. It was about all the things rock stars normally don’t sing about. Pop songs are usually about ...

Eric Comerford overhears Bilbo and Gandalf discussing happiness. After all their adventures, having now sailed to the Undying Lands, Gandalf and Bilbo sit on Bilbo’s front porch after dinner, ...

The controversial Australian philosopher defends the right to choose to die on utilitarian grounds. Matt Qvortrup recently asked him about it. The Northern Territory in Australia was the first place ...

Have you ever wondered whether everyone talks about you behind your back? Whether they are all keeping something from you? John McGuire discusses the Cartesian nightmare that is The Truman Show. Every ...

Alan Haworth on Karl Popper, his vision of a pragmatic, liberal society, and his assessment of its philosophical enemies. It is now one hundred years since the birth of Karl Popper, and almost sixty ...

Alexander Hooke finds hell & existentialist hope in prison. Hope helps keep us alive and anticipating the next sunrise with joy rather than gloom. It enlivens projects and maintains focus. Hope is ...

Not as much as some people think, says Phil Badger. What is being referred to when we speak of ‘The Enlightenment’ is not always easy to pin down, but in broad terms, it can be considered as an ...

Philip Goff discusses a thought-experiment about consciousness. For the last five hundred years or so physics has been doing extraordinarily well. More and more of our world has been captured in its ...

Stefán Snaevarr asks, are our identities created by narratives? Once upon a time a philosopher wrote an article called ‘Don Quixote and The Narrative Self’. He commenced by saying: In this essay, I ...

The first English version of a classic essay by Peter Wessel Zapffe, originally published in Janus #9, 1933. Translated from the Norwegian by Gisle R. Tangenes. One night in long bygone times, man ...

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 ...