Book review: African thinkers analyse some of the big issues of our time – race, belonging and identity: The subjects of race, identity and belonging are often fraught with contention and uneasiness. Who are you? Who belongs? Who is native, or indigenous to a place? These perennial questions arise around the world. They are the …
Richard Price: how one of the 18th century’s most influential thinkers was forgotten: Richard Price reading a letter dated 1784 from his friend, Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin West, National Library of Wales & Shutterstock According to the eulogies and obituaries written at the time of his death in 1791, Richard Price’s name would be remembered alongside …
At 80, Paulin J. Hountondji is one of Africa’s greatest modern thinkers: Paulin Hountondji….the anointed enfant terrible of African philosophy Hountondji's personal collection When renowned Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu passed on in early 2022, Paulin J. Hountondji was left alone to adopt the mantle of “Africa’s greatest living philosopher”. With one possible exception – Congolese …
How African thinkers of the 1980s fed into today’s inequality debates: Inequality within countries is growing globally Wikimedia Commons Inequality is an issue that arises everywhere in the world today. Recent studies by economists such as Branko Milanovic and Thomas Piketty have looked at trends in economic inequality on a global scale. Social movements – …
Coronavirus: medieval Japanese thinkers had similar reactions to plagues – isolate or party: A frugal and ascetic life: a shrine to the hermit Rishu Sennin. Alon Adika via Shutterstock In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, many people who have elderly parents will share the sentiment below: Things that make the heart lurch with anxiety: …
Stuck in the past: the UK needs to produce creative thinkers not exam-passing machines: Shutterstock The UK is experiencing a new renaissance. The first Renaissance looked back to the Classical world of ancient Rome and Greece. It bridged the historical divide from the Middle Ages to modern history (at least from a European perspective). Yet …