He’s nine years old. And they call him “The Philosopher.” Give the clip a few seconds and you will see exactly why.

Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as being shaped by an unfortunate oscillation between two opposing evils: tyranny and anarchy, each of which contain the seed of the other. The best course for steering clear of either one, Russell maintained, is liberalism.

Today, we’re revisiting the clash of two intellectual titans, Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault.

When last week we featured Bertrand Russell telling a story about his philosophical disciple Ludwig Wittgenstein, I mentioned in passing a film about the latter by Derek Jarman.

Today, Jason Silva serves up another philosophical espresso shot with The Mirroring Mind, a two-minute video inspired by the ideas explored in Douglas Hofstadter’s influential book, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Back in 2009, Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel made his course, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, available on the web for free (YouTube - iTunes - Web). Suddenly lifelong learners around the world had access to a popular course enjoyed by more than 14,000 Harvard students over 30 years.

Even if you cultivate only a casual appreciation for philosophy, you’ll have realized that professional opinions differ about Ludwig Wittgenstein, and starkly. Philosophers don’t just argue about his work; they also seem to argue about his attitude, his conduct, his very person.

The English logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell was convinced that the religions of the world are not merely untrue, but that they do grievous harm to people. That conviction is very much in evidence in his 1927 speech, “Why I Am Not a Christian,” read here in its complete form by the British actor Terrence Hardiman.

At the end of my college years, I found I needed to take one final political science course to complete my major. I chose a small summer session on the subject of virtue.

For better or worse, Alain de Botton is the face of pop philosophy.