Who was Aristotle, what did he write, and why does a thinker from the fourth century BCE still shape how we think about logic, nature, happiness and the good life? (more...)

Who was Heraclitus, what did he mean by saying that everything flows, and why has this obscure aristocrat from Ephesus fascinated thinkers from Plato to Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger? (more...)

Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Something separate from it? A pattern of behaviour, a kind of software, or an illusion? This guide walks through the main theories of mind – dualism, behaviourism, identity theory, functionalism, epiphenomenalism, eliminativism and more – with an example for each showing what it explains well and where it struggles. (more...)

Who was Plato, what did he write, and why does a thinker who died almost 2,400 years ago still shape how we think about knowledge, justice, love and the good life? (more...)

Who was Pythagoras, what did he actually teach, and how did a wandering religious leader from the sixth century BCE come to be credited with the idea that the universe is written in mathematics? (more...)

Who was Socrates, why did Athens put him to death, and how did a man who claimed to know nothing become the founding figure of Western philosophy? (more...)