Seeing the Shark

by | May 1, 2020 | Text

by Dominic Smith Two transitional moments in Spielberg’s Jaws demand special attention. The first is when Richard Dreyfuss turns up as oceanographer Matt Hooper. In a film full of strong performances, he steals the show (opinion will be split on whether Robert...

Selling Nietzsche Short (Again)

by | Apr 23, 2020 | Text

    by Ashley Woodward Popular culture has already had more than its fair share of misrepresentations of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and his ideas, from the comic book superhero Superman to the‘Nietzscheans’ – a malevolent alien race...

Ugly David

by | Apr 1, 2020 | Text

  by Dominic Smith I wasn’t in the habit of noticing it at all: a small rectangular fridge magnet bearing a likeness of the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume, gifted to me by an eccentric member of the Hume Society many years ago…. It is...

Why Philosophy Deserves Its Day

by | Nov 19, 2017 | Text

by Dominic Smith Originally published on the University of Dundee blog, Nov 15. Today is UNESCO ‘World Philosophy Day.’ But does philosophy deserve this celebration? According to a famous assessment from Stephen Hawking, the answer is emphatically ‘no’:...