Increasing numbers of people now receive a higher education. Yet we still do not have that educated public about which the philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre, wrote two decades ago. The stranger within: On the idea of an educated public reflects on this situation, regarding the future shape of the university as a kind of public sphere in exile and a site of social and cultural interpenetration. At its centre is a revaluation of the Scottish tradition of democratic intellectualism, highlighted by George Davie in his book The democratic intellect (1961). Davie charts the gradual extinction in...

Do you enjoy a chronicle of the transformation of a small Southern town girl into adulthood? Interested in spirituality, Christianity, and philosophy from a both a child's perspective and a median aged Southern woman? Then you definitely want to read this. The 1960's poetry are written from a young teen's viewpoint which is simple, yet profound. A little girl muses about the meaning of life and talks to her confidant doll in "Petula." "The Almond Tree and the Austrailian Pine" is from the "Still Searching" 1970's section. In this poem, two trees in are personified in a conversation with...