Courage – editor’s letter
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” - Juvenal Most people love to be praised as intelligent, generous,…
Ideas to change your life
Essays, interviews and ideas from New Philosopher.
More articles
Reasons of love
Here’s a fun little thought-experiment, derived from the work of Ernest Gellner. Try jotting down a list of all the things you love about…
Virtual identity
Times are changing fast enough that it’s hard to know where to start unspooling the question of modern identity. Questions to answer are breeding…
The vastness of outer space
When it comes to measuring the vastness of outer space, you need to talk about time in order to talk about distance. Watching the…
New Philosopher China launches
“Believe me, wise men don’t say ‘I shall live to do that’, tomorrow’s life is too late; live today.” Martial 新哲人 中文版: After more…
Entrenched perceptions
Zan Boag: Philosophers and the lay person have very different ideas of what perception means. What does it mean to philosophers and how do…
Does having a purpose in life make us happy?
Before John Major’s government converted Britain’s erstwhile polytechnics into universities in the 1990s, higher education in Britain was strictly a two-tier affair. Universities, channelling…
On purpose
Zan Boag: Before we delve into your ideas about free will, I think it would be helpful to clear up a few common misconceptions…
Why we fight for change
“People always said that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or…
Unexpected change
Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic philosopher, left us to interpret and apply his often-cryptic aphorisms. One of the fragments that survives from his writing declares, “All…
Grandstander in the family
When Italian handbag and luggage maker Guccio Gucci retired, handing over to his sons a fortune and the reins of the flourishing business he…
Staying afloat
I doubt I'm the only one experiencing a stretching of time - each day feels like a week; each week like several months. "Reality…
