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Matthew Sharpe

Matthew Sharpe

The Conversation

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Why Albert Camus still matters in an age of authoritarianism

Albert Camus wrote in the shadow of fascism, war and ideological violence. His defence of truth, democratic dialogue and human limits remains...

yesterday 9

Pearls and Irritations

Matthew Sharpe

Far‑right ‘gangster morality’ and the search for meaning: why you should read Camus

Far‑right ‘gangster morality’ and the search for meaning: why you should read Camus

Philosopher and writer Albert Camus defined gangster morality as ‘an inexhaustible round of triumph and revenge, defeat and resentment’. Sound...

wednesday 10

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

Aristotle’s Politics has wisdoms and warnings for our age of tech utopias and inequality

Are we all political animals? Aristotle thought so. Politics, he believed, was the art of the possible, but extremes of wealth could harm democracies.

16.12.2025 10

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

Charlie Kirk shooting suspect had ties to gaming culture and the ‘dark internet’. Here’s how they radicalise

Bullet casings found at the scene of the shooting were inscribed with various messages linked to online gaming and meme subcultures.

16.09.2025 5

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe

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’.

06.08.2025 10

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 8

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 10

The Conversation

Matthew Sharpe