19th November 2007 The Birmingham Book Festival was once a major event but in recent years it has declined into a pathetic populist charade, populated by the latest celebrity biographers, and aimed at boosting Waterstone's profits as far as one could tell. This year however, it returned with a serious and interesting programme. We would …
Category: philosophy
Grayling on Reading (OP)
Although when I started this blog I only transferred a few entries from their old home, I have decided that the time has come to move over everything that I might want to refer back to in the future. The excellence of the WordPress search facility is another compelling reason for doing this, as is the …
Some Very Short Introductions
The Very Short Introduction Series is published by the Oxford University Press and consists of an ever-increasing number of pocket-sized (11mmx17mm) introductions to a range of philosophic, scientific, literary, political, theological, historical, sociological and other subjects. The main practical joy of the books is their size: they are absolutely ideal for carrying in a pocket and being read …
Berlin on Turgenev
In 1970 Isaiah Berlin delivered the Romanes Lecture in Oxford under the title 'Fathers and Children - Turgenev and the Liberal Predicament' ; the text is contained in the 1975 Penguin edition of Fathers and Sons. It is deeply fascinating not only for the insights which it gives into Turgenev, a man whom Berlin found …
Reeves on Mill – Chapters 1-5
The following are my comments on Richard Reeves biography John Stuart Mill Victorian Firebrand (2007) taken directly from my comments on Trollope-l - some of the remarks therefore refer to debates on list but these are pertinent so I have refrained from any editing. Chapters 1 and 2 I have now started Richard …
June Miscellany (2009)
A scanty month dominated by another bout of Depression. In fact a week of recovery at the beginning June has only punctuated an episode which began in May and from which I am far from recovered. The problem in writing about Depression is that it is miserably re-iterative, solipsistic and impossible to make interesting. Depression …
Moving Toyshop 