The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. But where do the lyrics come from, and what’s the history of the anthem? ‘Oh, say can you see...’, goes ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ ...

Contractors give a spring cleaning to Robert Aitken's 1935 statue of Socrates, near the National Archives, in 2017. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Philosopher Agnes Callard revels in ...

Socrates’ method was to clear his students’ minds of abstractions and assumptions, so that they might attain self-knowledge and learn the practical wisdom of living well. His pupil Plato ...

Agnes Callard doesn’t just admire Socrates, the philosopher forced by his fellow Athenians to drink hemlock in 399 BCE; she wants to be him. Entirely conscious of himself as an icon, Callard ...

The public philosopher on open relationships, free speech and why protests fail. By Pippa Bailey In the acknowledgements at the end of her new book, Open Socrates, the philosopher Agnes Callard writes ...