Philosophy

Editor's Choice

The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies

The philosophe may have laid the egg, but was the bird hatched of a different breed? Maurice Cranston discusses the intellectual origins and development of the French Revolution.
What is Intellectual History?

Distilled 'spirit of the age' or a branch of sociology? Great men and their thoughts - with a lucky dip for culture vultures - or elite ideas whose time had come? Five historians discuss ground rules for the study of intellectual history.
Ideas and Politics in Early Stuart England

Kevin Sharpe reassesses the role that ideology, rhetoric and intellectual discussion played in the upheavals of seventeenth-century England.

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Islam’s First Terrorists

Clive Foss introduces the Kharijites, a radical sect from the first century of Islam based in southern Iraq and Iran, who adopted an extreme interpretation of the Koran, ruthless tactics and opposed hereditary political leadership. After causing centuries of problems to the caliphate, they survive in a quietist form in East Africa and Oman.

By Clive Foss | Published in History Today Volume: 57 Issue: 12

Theory and Practice: Democracy and the Philosophers

Can democracy, past or present, benefit from the ministrations of the philosophers? Benjamin Barber observes the claim that Plato's persona of Socrates is a democratic one.

By Benjamin Barber | Published in History Today Volume: 44 Issue: 8

Scotland's Neglected Enlightenment

Glasgow's role in the Enlightenment is often overshadowed by Edinburgh, but Roy Campbell shows that the impetus came from the West with the pioneering work done in the city from the early years of the eighteenth century.

By Roy Campbell | Published in History Today Volume: 40 Issue: 5

Luki's Lost Archive

Ludwig Wittgenstein left more than four million words unpublished. A series of manuscripts, which disappeared during the Second World War, are currently being prepared for publication by Cambridge University.

By Kathryn Hadley | Posted May 16, 2011 - 11:43 on the History Today Blog

When was David Hume really born?

On the 300th anniversary of David Hume's birth, Kathryn Hadley provides an overview of his life and ideas and explains the confusion surrounding his true date of birth.

By Kathryn Hadley | Posted May 9, 2011 - 13:37 on the History Today Blog

Searching for Utopia

Richard Serjeantson reviews Gregory Claeys' history of utopia.

By Richard Serjeantson | Posted April 20, 2011 - 15:58 on the History Today Blog

Plato's American Republic: John Humphrey Noyes and the Perfectionist movement

‘Complex marriage’, ‘male continence’ and the selection of the perfect partner were all themes propounded by a 19th-century cult in New York State. Clive Foss explores the influence of Plato’s Republic on John Humphrey Noyes and his Perfectionist movement.

By Clive Foss | Published in History Today Volume: 60 Issue: 12

Tolstoy's Guiding Light

The philosophical writings of the author of War and Peace inspired followers from Moscow to Croydon and led to the creation of a Christian anarchist reform movement. Charlotte Alston examines the activities and influence of Tolstoy’s disciples.

By Charlotte Alston | Published in History Today Volume: 60 Issue: 10

Bettany Hughes

Bettany Hughes is well known for her television work on the ancient world and is the author of a life of Helen of Troy and, more recently, of Socrates.

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Patricia Fara

Patricia Fara is a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. Her primary research interests are the origins and cultural development of science through the ages, culminating in her Science: A Four Thousand Year History (OUP, 2009).

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