About: Socrates

“When are you going to write about Palmyra?” a reader asks me the other day. “If you’re willing to address the Elgin Marbles and political correctness, why not Palmyra?” Why not, indeed? First, we would like to thank you readers who send us all manner of encouragements, questions, and, sometimes, angry tirades. Your editor reads

It has long been the prerogative of the ‘young’ to consider that phrases such as “there has never been a time when freedom has been under greater threat” as something particularly apposite to the prevailing geopolitical climate. However, for those of us who annually accrue more grey hairs than new CDs (or, indeed, who think

That knowledge was intrinsically desirable was something of a given in the minds of the classical thinkers. Socrates, the father of Western philosophy, scolds his fellow Athenians who turn their back on knowledge… Are you not ashamed that you spend your time acquiring as much money as possible and similarly with reputation and honor, and

By Van Bryan In The Politics, Aristotle tells us that ostracism was originally instituted as a means to allow the common people to check the power of the political players who had grown too powerful too fast and were abusing their position. It was a way to give claws to the hare when he was

Are there warring factions in any political society? We wonder. Is that where all our problems stem from? The idea that the few, wealthy oligarchs are constantly at odds with the disadvantaged masses is nothing new. In fact, if we were to read Aristotle’s The Politics, we might see that it’s been going on for