Category: Blog

“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… Continue reading Plato’s Path to Life. How to understand his philosophy. And how not to

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… Continue reading Post-Literacy and Playing With Words

Against science? William Blake is often thought to be in that camp. But that’d be wrong…New essay @instituteofartandideas

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… Continue reading Rouze Up Souls of the New Age! A conversation with Malcolm Guite on William Blake

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… Continue reading The Wisdom of the Imagination. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake

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… Continue reading War. What is it good for? William James and Adam Smith explain

What makes a genius? How do some artists develop a style that is, at once, utterly distinctive and yet, also, universal? And what is the meaning of that seemingly paradoxical link?William Blake provides a case in point… A new essay at Substack, this time as a guest writer for The Culturist. Do read on here. 

The standard evolutionary story of the arrival of our species depends too much on strikingly modern assumptions. Material survival, social skills, and the development of technology are the interpretative tools used to read the evidence. So in Part 1 of this alternative narrative, I developed an account that prioritises inner life and lived experience. Neanderthals… Continue reading HUMAN. The alternative evolutionary story of who we are. Part 2

Hands at the Cuevas de las Manos upon Río Pinturas. Image: Wikicommons Big history depends upon a tired premise: we are cave people trapped in a modern world. But honest, the science doesn’t stack up. There is another narrative to be told. Part 1 of a new essay is at my Substack, A Golden String:… Continue reading HUMAN. The alternative evolutionary story of who we are. Part 1

An audio version of this talk is available at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination is now available worldwide. To celebrate, Mark Vernon and Robert Rowland Smith discuss all things Blake from angels and images, to poetry and prophecy.