Circumspecte

It's World Philosophy Day - an opportunity to contemplate one's very existence and whether computer monitors really exist, says David Bain. People expect different things of philosophers. Some expect us to be sages. When these people meet me, my heart sinks, since I know theirs is about to. Others expect us to have a steady supply of aphorisms up our sleeves, such as that love is never having to say you're sorry (something no partner of mine has ever been persuaded of). They too are disappointed when they meet me, especially when I say that the glass so beloved by optimists and pessimists is both half full and half empty. Others expect of us not sagacity, but madness, or at least outlandish beliefs. And here, it must be said, some philosophers really have delivered. Thales believed that everything is made of water, for example, while Pythagoras avoided eating beans because he believed they have souls. Andre Glucksmann, Bernard-Henri Levy Eccentric hair: The mark of a modern...