Philosophy and Life
Recent writing and occasional thoughts on assorted matters.
- The Quiet Revolution and the New Theism. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake Nov 23, 2025 - An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. The mood has shifted. Subjects that were once taboo - like God - are now discussed openly. So if a new theism is abroad, what might it bring? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon ask why individuals engaged… … Continue reading The Quiet Revolution and the New Theism. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
- To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die. Part 2. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. Death is a Guru Nov 8, 2025 - Last week, we began a reading of Plato’s dialogue, the Phaedo, which includes the death of Socrates. Plato is, in my view,routinely misunderstood in the modern world and, a couple of weeks back, I suggested a way in which he can be better read. This reading of the Phaedo puts that insight into practice. Prison’s portal We have reached a… … Continue reading To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die. Part 2. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. Death is a Guru
- To Philosophise Is To Learn To Die. Part 1. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. The Hemlock Approaches Nov 1, 2025 - Last week, I wrote about how Plato is routinely misunderstood in the modern world and suggested a way in which he can be better read. This week, we turn to his dialogue, the Phaedo, which includes the death of Socrates, to put that insight into practice. Death as an opportunity to reflect on life. The practice is to bring the… … Continue reading To Philosophise Is To Learn To Die. Part 1. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. The Hemlock Approaches
- The Day William Blake Saw A Ghost. A tale for Halloween Oct 31, 2025 - Perceptual openness is a fundamental virtue in a Blakean way of life, and discernment is not an optional extra; a discriminating mind is an active agent in the esoteric domain if the weird and wonderful are not to remain merely that. There is another story which suggests as much. It relates the only time in his life that [Blake] saw… … Continue reading The Day William Blake Saw A Ghost. A tale for Halloween
- Plato’s Path to Life. How to understand his philosophy. And how not to Oct 26, 2025 - “A modern European can read Plato and Aristotle through from end to end, he can even write books expounding their philosophy, and all without understanding a single sentence.” Owen Barfield Socrates was the teacher of Plato who was the teacher of Aristotle. But what Socrates taught is, of course, the wrong question. For, if there is one thing that Plato… … Continue reading Plato’s Path to Life. How to understand his philosophy. And how not to
- Post-Literacy and Playing With Words Oct 11, 2025 - Screens disconnect. But infinite scrolls manifest a deeper crisis of meaning. A new moral panic is haunting the land: the rise of a post-literate society. The fear is that a world without reading is being forged by the prevalence of flighty, flashing screens and addictive social media. Move over political fragmentation and psychological disorders. This crisis is indicated by a… … Continue reading Post-Literacy and Playing With Words
- Heisenberg meets William Blake: The danger of science’s “single vision” Oct 7, 2025 - Against science? William Blake is often thought to be in that camp. But that’d be wrong…New essay @instituteofartandideas … Continue reading Heisenberg meets William Blake: The danger of science’s “single vision”
- Rouze Up Souls of the New Age! A conversation with Malcolm Guite on William Blake Sep 27, 2025 - https://youtu.be/U_3dfRxZ9MA An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. “Man has no Body distinct from his Soul,” declared William Blake. “Nature is imagination itself!” The human face is the “countenance divine”. Inspiring, yes. But what can we make of his sayings? Mark Vernon sat down with poet Malcolm Guite to discuss how… … Continue reading Rouze Up Souls of the New Age! A conversation with Malcolm Guite on William Blake
- The Wisdom of the Imagination. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake Sep 23, 2025 - https://youtu.be/8vr6AjyqEjw An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. The imagination is often regarded as a valuable but fanciful capacity. But what if imagination were not an optional extra, or even the possession of human beings alone, but a fundamental feature of reality? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake… … Continue reading The Wisdom of the Imagination. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
- War. What is it good for? William James and Adam Smith explain Sep 20, 2025 - Why people go to war is puzzling. Historians still debate the origins of the First World War, for example, no expert quite nailing the reasons that the great powers tipped the globe into industrialised catastrophe. But how to understand the energy of enmity is again pressing. Conflicts in Europe and elsewhere show that default peace is a turn-of-the-millennium pipedream; everlasting… … Continue reading War. What is it good for? William James and Adam Smith explain