Tag: Philosophy

Trump is great because he calls a spade a spade, which is unheard of in Western politics, says Prof James Alexander. What's more, sometimes, as we saw with Iran, he refuses, like the philosopher, to take sides.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said it is "unacceptable" that Palestinians don't yet have a state. Professor James Alexander wonders if Lammy has thought through what a Palestinian state would actually look like.

Those who talk about far Right, hard Right or Right-wing extremism are probably finding a scapegoat for their own systematic internalised fascism, suggests Prof James Alexander.

Out with the old elites, in with the new, says Dr Nicholas Tate – preferably ones who don't sneer at the people they rule, shove woke dogma down our throats or fail spectacularly as leaders.

Have you heard of the "Habermas Machine"? It's a Google AI tool that reaches compromise between contending arguments. But what's the point if it doesn't actually make people agree, asks Prof James Alexander.

What's the difference between scepticism and cynicism? Cynicism is especially necessary for assessing politics, says Prof James Alexander, as it sits below scepticism, making us question the motives of those who rule us.

Today is the 1,500th anniversary of the death of the Roman writer Boethius, whose great work The Consolation of Philosophy illustrates what we mean when we say we are part of one Western civilisation, says Nicholas Tate.

Prof James Alexander reviews Christopher Beckwith's The Scythian Empire, naming it his book of the year for its thesis that scepticism and other key philosophical developments came from one remarkable ancient people.

Dr James Alexander, a politics professor, has diagnosed the main cause of our current malaise: acceleration anxiety. No longer relating to eternal things, we are anxious only to reach the future as fast as possible.

Jeffrey A. Tucker reflects on the persistence of pandemic-related measures, such as social distancing signs and floor stickers, long after the Covid emergency has faded.