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

Baruch de Spinoza The Jew of Voorburg, Expulsion and Exile The philosopher Baruch de Spinoza was a Portuguese Jew born in 1632 in Amsterdam, the son of a successful dealer in Mediterranean foods, but was cast out of the Portuguese synagogue in 1656 after falling out with Jewish biblical scholars and disputing core elements of Judaism, such that he was considered an atheist. However, he was both during and after his life “identified by his Jewishness”, and for Jewish intellect

Swimming Stags, Lascaux cave, France 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 been found: the Chauvet cave, discovered in 1994, contains friezes as well preserved and of compar

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.