Moses Maimonides, the great 12th-century philosopher and legalist, lived at the pinnacle of Jewish culture in the Islamic world. What is amazing about Maimonides is that, despite making his living as a physician and having an active medical career, he was also a prolific writer. And “prolific” doesn’t do justice to describing the extraordinary output of his writing. […]
No matter what you call it—misgivings, nerves, apprehension, unease—we’ve all experienced a form of anxiety at some point in our lives. But when “jitters” don’t go away or turn into something more substantial, you may have an anxiety disorder. […]
Why does evil exist? Particularly in the last 100 years or so, thinkers have made repeated attempts, directly and indirectly, to come to grips with this very question. […]
Konstantin Pobedonostsev, was probably the most powerful and influential intellectual in Russia during the final decades of tsarist rule. From 1880 to 1905, he served as Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, and in this position he was the layman in charge of administering the entire Russian Orthodox Church. […]
Almost everyone is familiar with the name Confucius, but not as many are familiar with the impact his philosophy has made on the world at large. Confucius’s concepts of how life should be experienced, the dynamics between citizen and government, the structure of family, and his views on how to operate in an increasingly turbulent society remain relevant hundreds of years after his death. They formed the philosophical backbone of East Asian civilization as well as influencing the Western world in innumerable ways […]
When asking the question “What is the meaning of life?”, you may want take a step back, reflect and begin by asking, “What is meant by the phrase ‘the meaning of life’”? […]
Greek philosophy is divided into the period before and after the life of Socrates. Starting with the Ionians, the earliest philosophers are now known as the “Presocratics”. The question is, what was their role in defining Western Philsophy as we know it today? […]
To determine the best size for American government, one must look to the biggest names in economic theory: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. […]
We have a problem in everyday language when we want to talk about “what happened” in the lives of historical figures. What happened is surprisingly complicated, even when we wish to explain an event that occurred earlier today, much less the actions of a person living 2,500 years ago […]
To begin to understand Socrates, it is best to consider how Plato presents Socrates as a teacher. The most obvious place to begin is with […]
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