Thinkers

Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddimah: the historian who looked for the laws of the rise and fall of states

In the fourteenth century a diplomat and judge from Tunis withdrew to a remote fortress and wrote an introduction to history. That introduction became one of the most valued works of social thought.

3 November 2026 / 2 min read

Ibn Sina (Avicenna): the doctor and philosopher who read the Metaphysics forty times

By 18, according to his autobiography, he had learned almost everything the scholars of his time knew. But one book by Aristotle remained incomprehensible to him, until a chance purchase in the market changed everything.

3 November 2026 / 3 min read

Blaise Pascal: the mathematician who wrote about the "thinking reed"

Pascal was one of the most brilliant minds of the seventeenth century. But his most widely read book is not mathematics: it is a collection of notes on why people run away from themselves.

3 November 2026 / 5 min read

Michel de Montaigne: the man who invented the essay by writing about himself

Montaigne did not want to write a great philosophical treatise. He wanted to test his thoughts on everything, from friendship to death, and so he gave his name to a new genre: the essay.

3 November 2026 / 5 min read

Musonius Rufus: Epictetus’s teacher, who said women should study philosophy too

Few people know his name today, but Musonius Rufus was one of the most respected philosophers of Rome. His lectures, recorded by his students, sound strikingly close to our own questions.

3 November 2026 / 2 min read

Viktor Frankl and the search for meaning

After the Second World War, a psychiatrist who had lost almost his whole family in the camps wrote a book about what keeps people alive. It is still read by millions.

1 November 2026 / 3 min read

Seneca on time: "It is not that we have little time, but that we waste much"

Seneca complained about people who scatter their time without noticing. His questions are more relevant than ever.

20 October 2026 / 3 min read