For Warumungu and Warlmanpa man Ethan Taylor, the opportunity to travel and study at one of the world’s oldest and most elite universities brings mixed emotions. The 23-year-old Melbourne university honours student was born in a small country town in Western ...

One hundred and fifty years ago on 18 May 1872 the philosopher Bertrand Russell (May 18, 1872– February 2, 1970) was born. During his long life Bertrand Russell wrote many philosophical and related books and treatises: their length might well ...

Around May 1952 philosopher Bertrand Russell (18 May 1872-2 February 1970) wrote an essay ‘Reflections on my eightieth birthday’ which was reproduced in Portraits from Memory (first published 1956) and as an addendum at the end of the third and ...

On 6 January 1912 the German scientist Alfred Wegener (1 November 1880 – November 1930) first proposed his ‘continental drift’ theory (now also known as ‘plate tectonics’) at the annual meeting of the German Geological Society in Frankfurt. A few ...

World Philosophy Day 2021 falls on 18 November. Commemorated since 2005 world-wide, it is quite close to the birthdays of theologian and Christian philosopher (Saint) Augustine (13 November 354–28 August 430) and philosopher Baruch Spinoza (24 November 1632–21 February 1677). ...

This (sort of) commemorative article will try to juxtapose an aspect of the Thomist lex aeterna (in Latin, English translation ‘eternal law’) with two other concepts arguably derived from anthropology and feminist legal theory to be discussed below. Apart from ...

February 21 2021 (to use the historic present tense) is the 344th anniversary of the death of philosopher Baruch Spinoza (24 November 1632–21 February 1677). This article will comment on only a paragraph in one of Spinoza's letters. Stretching a ...

Gentle reader: During the past 24 hours while you slept you dreamt. You may not recall your dream but you did dream, or so say contemporary neurologists and scientists. For millennia there have been many treatises, tracts or plain ‘hocus ...

In his Australia Day Address in 2006, John Howard said that Australia’s "dominant cultural pattern comprises Judeo-Christian ethics, the progressive spirit of the Enlightenment and the institutions and values of British political culture". The speech was controversial. Howard set out ...

I consider myself to be a child of the European Enlightenment. This is not only because of my Irish heritage, but because of my admiration for the development of questions and ideas from Greek philosophers, from the industrial revolution and ...