George Berkeley
14 results

Is your ‘true self’ a kind of ghost?
- Culture
- November 28, 2019, 05:00
A few weeks ago, this column explored that ancient puzzle “How do you know you actually exist?”, one of the defining questions of philosophy. In doin(...)

Can you really love a dog? and life’s other big questions
- Culture
- October 17, 2019, 05:00
Western civilisation has been slow to take seriously the suffering of animals. For “slow” read thousands of years, and yet we’re only starting to get (...)

Ireland does philosophy: A new guide for the perplexed
- Culture
- February 19, 2019, 01:30
The idea of philosophy becoming a core discipline in the Irish education system once seemed like a pipe dream. But now there is a short course on the(...)

To infinity and beyond: The numbers game behind God’s ‘existence’
- Culture
- February 6, 2018, 01:30
I recently overheard a couple of young boys arguing over who had scored the most goals during a football kick-around. “I scored infinity,” boasted the(...)

Explaining consciousness: the mind-matter connection
- Science
- February 1, 2018, 00:00
A scientific explanation of the “hard problem” of how the material structure of the brain underpins consciousness would represent a major coup for sci(...)

What are you like?
- Opinion
- March 11, 2017, 00:01
The inability of most teenagers to complete a sentence without interjecting the work “like” at least once is usually considered a bad habit. And(...)

Why is there no intellectual tradition in Irish Christianity?
- Opinion
- July 26, 2016, 01:14
It is a curious fact that Ireland, despite its over 1,500 years of Christianity, has produced only one speculative thinker with the reputation of bein(...)

Unthinkable: Should we give up on utopian politics?
- Culture
- May 31, 2016, 06:00
Every generation flirts with utopian ideals. A hundred years ago, we had Patrick Pearse’s nationalistic vision of a self-sustaining Ireland born of b(...)

ADiff review: Notfilm lets Samuel Beckett speak
- Film
- February 16, 2016, 17:41
Light House Cinema, Saturday 20th, 6.30pm, 128 min Film, Samuel Beckett’s sole excursion into the medium, was, by the playwright’s own account, a f(...)

Buster’s last stand – An Irishman’s Diary about one of the 20th century’s great comedians
- Opinion
- January 30, 2016, 01:00
The great comedian Buster Keaton was not an Irish-American (or not much of one, anyway) contrary to what many people think. But he did start his caree(...)