There are moments when life seems to fall apart without warning: a job that ends, a relationship that runs out of road, a stage of life that suddenly stops making sense. The instinctive reaction is ...

Long before there was a periodic table of the elements, there was no need for a table — just four chairs. From ancient through medieval into early modern times, natural philosophers could count the ...

Aristotle tells us that, to knowledge, there is its own pleasure. Though we have perhaps experienced the pleasure of knowledge, we seldom reflect on its significance. Indeed, Aristotle tells us that ...

The pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles (d. c. 434 BCE) hailed from Acragas, now Agrigento, in Italy. He had a reputation as a mystic and miracle worker and claimed to be able to cure old age and ...