Philosopher Thomas Nagel The arguments in philosopher Thomas Nagel’s seminal 1974 essay, What is it Like to be Bat? can help us answer the question of whether a human born with XY chromosomes and a male body can be, can become, or can know what it is like to be a woman, or can know what inhabiting the world is like for a woman. Nagel — who randomly chose bats from the list of mammals — began from the premise that if an organism has consciousness, then there is something that

A brief guide to Spinoza's concept of freedom Baruch de Spinoza The Jew of Voorburg Of the several very short introductions to Spinoza Ian Buruma’s Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah , part of Yale’s Jewish Lives  series, is the most useful for those entirely new to the philosopher. Buruma, a journalist and historian, acknowledges in the book’s introduction “I’m not an expert in philosophy and I cannot propose to offer any fresh insights into Spinoza’s thinking”. Buruma’s book is a b

Swimming Stags, Lascaux cave, France " ... there are Still songs to sing beyond Mankind" Paul Celan, Threadsuns Art as violence The Boy’s Own story of the discovery in 1940 of the linked caves at Lascaux in the Vezere valley in France, and the 600 or so 17, 000-year-old paintings inside them by schoolboy Marcel Ravidat and his mischievous scamp of a dog Robot can be found in all histories of Prehistoric art. Since Lascaux, older sites and cave art have

A reappraisal of Louis Malle's 1963 film The Fire Within and its source nove, and how the film relates to various philosopies of sucide, in particular those of Schopenhauer and EM Cioran. Also discusses henri Bresson's 1964 movie Mouchette.