July 31, 2026
As if we did not already have enough wars, the year 2026 has brought an explosion of further conflicts: millions more people displaced; homes, hospitals and vital infrastructure reduced to rubble; an economic impact that will probably be felt for years; not even mentioning the death of innocent civilians, amongst them many children. Why are [...]July 31, 2026
In addition to rational thought, which works with ideas and shapes the mind, as we have said, there is in the human being another more subtle form of thought, which is intuition. The first form weaves threads in order to know: it is the reasoning faculty; the second grasps directly: it is intuition. We relate [...]July 31, 2026
Bread is as old as civilization itself. Wherever humans learned to grind grain into flour, mix it with water and apply heat, bread emerged − not just as sustenance, but often as a symbol of life itself, of order, and at times, of connection with the divine. Across ancient cultures, bread has always been a [...]July 31, 2026
“A philosopher and interested in humanity” were among Simone Weil’s last words, responding to her doctor’s inquiry about who she was and what she did for a living. She had been laid low in Ashford sanatorium in England by her exhausting efforts in service of de Gaulle’s Free French, her tuberculosis, her history of poor [...]July 31, 2026
I was inspired to write this article after visiting an exhibition on the samurai at the British Museum. Paradoxically for an exhibition about warriors, and much to my surprise, I emerged with a strong feeling of joyful peace and serenity, effects which I attribute to the sheer beauty of some of the paintings and artefacts [...]July 24, 2026
These days, I often hear about the need to go back to our roots and reconnect with nature. It feels as though we have allowed speed and productivity to take over our daily lives. In recent years and knowing I grew up in a city, I have started to shift from simply observing nature’s beauty [...]July 24, 2026
Our questions and the answers we receive are dependent on one another. It is not possible to gain an answer to a question that we’ve never asked. We remain ignorant until we awaken to the possibility that our understanding is somewhat limited. Currently, definitive answers to the question ‘what is consciousness?’ are out of reach. [...]July 24, 2026
“Are you happy?” “Well, sort of happy.” “Would you like to be happier?” “Hm, I don’t have time to ask myself this question. What does happiness mean anyway?” “Good question.” Do we mean by happiness this temporary moment of a pleasant day, a nice event or winning the lottery? Because even the happiness derived from [...]July 23, 2026
In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the political philosopher Francis Fukuyama wrote a highly influential book, The End of History and The Last Man. He claimed that “what we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but [...]July 23, 2026
In Part 1 we saw the biography of this extraordinary but forgotten figure of Roman history. This article concludes with an examination of Julian’s philosophical ideas and inner life. A soul incapable of feeling fear Julian followed the great philosophical ideas under the guidance of his teachers, with a particular focus on ethical ideas. These [...]July 23, 2026
The dust of oblivion has erased the memory of one of the greatest figures in European history, whose ideas and work left a profound mark on the world: the Roman Emperor Julian, named ‘the Apostate’ by the Christians to whom his memory was anathema. By the 4th century AD, Rome had almost completely exhausted its [...]