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Matthew Sharpe

Matthew Sharpe

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Francis Bacon’s Essays explore the darker side of human nature. 400 years on, they still instruct and unnerve

Francis Bacon’s Essays explore the darker side of human nature. 400 years on, they still instruct and unnerve

First published in 1625, the British philosopher’s collected essays mix poetic aphorisms with prescient reflections on ‘false news’ and ‘cunning men’.

yesterday 30

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

80 years after Benito Mussolini’s death, what can democracies today learn from his fascist rise?

Mussolini’s rise shows that strongmen are only as powerful as the democratic opposition allows. Failing to take them seriously enables their success.

26.04.2025 6

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

‘A dark masterpiece’: Foucault’s Discipline and Punish at 50

One of the most influential philosophical works of the 20th century, Discipline and Punish is unsettlingly prescient in our age of digital...

03.02.2025 9

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

What is Plato’s Symposium, the classic book drawn into the Gender Queer culture wars?

It was probably inevitable, but is deeply sad, that Plato’s Symposium (circa 380 BCE), has been drawn into the culture wars. A dialogue of great...

15.10.2024 10

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

What are the limits of free speech? We may have arrived at them

Political operatives on the far right have long spoken about their ambition to shift the “Overton window”. The aim is to “mainstream” ideas long...

08.10.2024 4

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe