From Shakespeare to Beckett, the contradictory figure of the fool who possesses unexpected wisdom has been a popular and effective literary trope and rhetorical figure for centuries. Philosophy needs idiots too, argues Keson Sutherland in "Stupefacti...

A contemporary of Giordano Bruno and Galileo, Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) was a controversial philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet who was persecuted during the Inquisition and spent much of his adult life imprisoned because of his hetero...

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), philosopher and reformer, is one of the most influential thinkers of the modern age. This introduction to his writings presents a representative selection of texts authoritatively restored by the Bentham Project, Universit...

Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics...

According to political philosopher Frederic Gros, traditional notions of war and peace are currently being replaced by ideas of intervention and security. But while we may be able to speak of an end to war, this does not imply an end to violence. On...

Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. But "Scientific Perspectivism" argues that the acts of observing and theorizing are both matters of perspective – which makes scientific knowledge contingent. Using the example of...

In 1989, the Cold War abruptly ended and it seemed as if the world was at last safe for democracy. But a spirit of uneasiness, discontent, and world-weariness soon arose and has persisted in Europe, in America, and elsewhere for two decades. To disce...

In 1933 eminent philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) fled Nazi Germany for the United States. His fame in Europe having already been established through a public debate with Martin Heidegger in 1929, Cassirer would go on to become a noteworthy infl...

Art today is in deep crisis. Criticism seems to have abandoned any notion of evaluation, the public has been denied the possibility of understanding, and aesthetics have lost all legitimacy. Formerly, artists claimed their right to decide for themsel...

"All my life I have seen only troubled times, extreme divisions in society, and immense destruction; I have taken part in these troubles" – Guy Debord. Guy Debord is one of the 20th Century's most prophetic critics. His bestselling work, "Society of...