When Roman emperors rode in triumphal processions, they would have a fool in the chariot with them, continually whispering to them something along the lines of “You are only human. You too will die – just like beggars and slaves do.” Shakespeare returns to the idea of mortality obsessively in Hamlet (c.1600); for instance, when the antic Prince rhymes: “Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay, / Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” Indeed, one of the most striking images of late medieval Europe is the Dance Macabre or Totentanz, in which all classes join hands with death. In Rome, as in medieval Europe, the spectre of death served a levelling function. No matter who you are, sooner or later God is going to cut you down. This insight also reminds us that institutions and discourses that seem immutable are not set in stone, but embodied in that most perishable of things, human flesh.
Folly
With the publication of Erasmus’s Praise of Folly (Moriae encomium) in 1509, the old order of folly was swept away. Whereas the author of the Ship of Fools (Narrenschiff, 1494), Sebastian Brandt, had inveighed against the moral corruption of mankind, in Erasmus’s hands folly becomes a way not only of exposing the hypocrisy and despotism of those in power, but also of understanding ourselves and our place in the world, not least because it provides a tool to fathom the limits of reason.
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The Two Dennises
Hannah Mortimer observes a close encounter of the same kind.
Heraclitus (c.500 BC)
Harry Keith lets flow a stream of ideas about permanence and change.
Does the Cosmos Have a Purpose?
Raymond Tallis argues intently against universal intention.
Is Driving Fossil-Fuelled Cars Immoral?
Rufus Duits asks when we can justify driving our carbon contributors.
Abelard & Carneades Yes & No
Frank Breslin says 'yes and no' to presenting both sides of an argument.
Frankl & Sartre in Search of Meaning
Georgia Arkell compares logotherapy and atheistic existentialism.
Luce Irigaray
Luce Irigaray, now ninety-two years old, was, among many other things, one of the most impactful feminists of the 1970s liberation movements - before she was marginalised, then ostracised, from the francophone intellectual sphere.
Significance
Ruben David Azevedo tells us why, in a limitless universe, we’re not insignificant.
The Present Is Not All There Is To Happiness
Rob Glacier says don’t just live in the now.
Philosophers Exploring The Good Life
Jim Mepham quests with philosophers to discover what makes a life good.