Interviews

Timothy May
He Came, He Saw, He Conquered: Timothy May on the Legendary Mongolian Conqueror Genghis Khan
In the winter of 1220, the citizens of Samarkand opened their gates to Genghis Khan. It was, they had calculated, their best chance of survival. The city was one of... Read more...
David Hume and the Limits of Belief: Paul Russell on Philosophy, Skepticism, and Irreligion
David Hume and the Limits of Belief: Paul Russell on Philosophy, Skepticism, and Irreligion
In the summer of 1776, as David Hume lay dying in his Edinburgh house, his physician noted something that unsettled the city's religious community far more than any argument he... Read more...
Gavin Kennedy
“Bound by The World Order in Which He Lived”: Gavin Kennedy on Why Adam Smith Was a Realist, Not an Ideologue
In 1773, Adam Smith did something that puzzles historians to this day. Sensing that he might be close to death, he summoned his closest friends and asked them to burn... Read more...
Eric Steinberg
Chalking It Up To Experience: Eric Steinberg On David Hume's Immense Influence on Modern Philosophy
In the summer of 1776, as the American colonies were declaring their independence across the Atlantic, David Hume lay dying in his house on St. Andrew Square in Edinburgh, and... Read more...
Dianne Hales
Mona Lisa Men Have Named Her: Dianne Hales on the “Ordinary” Renaissance Woman Who Continues to Spark “Extraordinary Interest”
In the early hours of August 21, 1911, a Louvre employee named Vincenzo Peruggia walked out of the museum carrying the Mona Lisa under his coat. He had hidden inside... Read more...
John Moffat
Not Defying Gravity: John Moffat on Albert Einstein's Centenary Theory and Beyond
In the spring of 1953, a twenty-two-year-old Canadian with no formal university degree and an audacious theory about unified fields sat down and wrote a letter to Albert Einstein. He... Read more...
Electrifying Inventions: Michael Pravica on Why Nikola Tesla Was “One of Humanity's Greatest Heroes”
Electrifying Inventions: Michael Pravica on Why Nikola Tesla Was “One of Humanity's Greatest Heroes”
In the night of September 3, 1899, a storm rolled across the Colorado plains toward the small town of Colorado Springs, where Nikola Tesla had set up an experimental laboratory... Read more...
A Jack of All Trades: Cheryl Misak on Polymath and Father of Pragmatism Charles Sanders Peirce
A Jack of All Trades: Cheryl Misak on Polymath and Father of Pragmatism Charles Sanders Peirce
In 1884, Charles Sanders Peirce was dismissed from his position at Johns Hopkins University following a scandal involving his second wife, whom he had married before his divorce from his... Read more...
Katherine R. Syer
Deep Drama: Katherine Syer on the Political Connotations of Richard Wagner's Operas
In the summer of 1876, the German Emperor, the Emperor of Brazil, the King of Bavaria, and virtually every significant composer and critic in Europe converged on a small Bavarian... Read more...
ReJoyce: Philip Kitcher on James Joyce's "Amazingly Lyrical" and "Startlingly" Original Prose
ReJoyce: Philip Kitcher on James Joyce's "Amazingly Lyrical" and "Startlingly" Original Prose
On the morning of February 2, 1922, a small print run of a novel left a Paris bookshop called Shakespeare and Company and began its unlikely journey into literary history.... Read more...
Southern Charm: Thomas McHaney on William Faulkner's “Incredibly Apt” Vocabulary
Southern Charm: Thomas McHaney on William Faulkner's “Incredibly Apt” Vocabulary
In the autumn of 1948, William Faulkner was so broke that he had written to his publisher asking for an advance on work he had not yet begun. His books... Read more...
Maria Rosa Antognazza
A Beautiful Mind: Maria Rosa Antognazza On Why Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz “Continues to Fascinate Philosophers”
In the summer of 1676, a thirty-year-old Gottfried Leibniz made a detour on his journey from Paris to Hanover that would haunt the history of mathematics for centuries. He stopped... Read more...