In the paneled quiet of the Papal Cancelleria last fortnight, eager-eyed young priests leaned forward on elbows shiny from desk-reading; ascetic monks stretched thin necks from their lowered cowls.

I'm interested in three modern philosophies that overlap a lot: Existentialism, Nihilism, and Absurdism. I could be wrong here, but it seems they all start with the same idea--life doesn't have any ...

THE WORDS by Jean-Paul Sartre. 255 pages. George Braziller. $5. For a quarter-century, French Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre has been the symbol of what is best (implacable honesty) and worst ...

Two years ago, when I published “The fifth horseman and the new MAD,“ MAD stood for “massive attacks of disruption” — a 21st century replacement for the Cold War MAD, “mutual assured destruction.” The ...

Quote for the day: Søren Kierkegaard, a pioneer of existentialism, believed life is understood in hindsight but lived in the present. His quote "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be ...

More than 160 years after its publication, 'Madame Bovary' still feels startlingly modern. Gustave Flaubert’s tragic heroine, Emma Bovary, remains one of literature’s most painfully recognisable ...