Pathways

Each month we keep track of the different paths modern life is taking right now and how writers are trying to keep up. Here are some routes we found in November that opened up new vistas on what it means to be modern and how we became that way.

Worried that a disease might threaten democracy? You should read Thucydides to find out more....

Perhaps Antifa and the Proudboys have more in common than they think. Especially when it comes to their origins.

Are guilty bystanders a new feature of human life or do they have a deeper history?

Want to understand the anthropocene? Don't go to a science blog, look at Turner painting.

The history of philosophy tells certain stories. Are they true? Well it depends on what you mean by true.

Women have been cut out of history in a lot of ways, including the history of piano making.

Stefan Zweig’s World of Yesterday was always a fantasy. Perhaps our world of yesterday was a fantasy too.

Which is stranger, history or philosophy?

Mary Wolstonecraft, the original feminist, deserves a statue. But does she deserve this one.

Our relationship to the future had turned pathological. Perhaps the cure is to listen to some voices from the past. Then take a moment to look around.

And…

The Cartesian pop song we have all been waiting for.