CHIEF RABBI Sir Jonathan Sacks' new book is called To Heal a Fractured World (Schocken, 2005). The sub-title-The ethics of responsibility- attracted me, as it cuts across the culture of the West which holds 'my rights', consumerism and 'the market' to be all-important.

At various times in their lives some people revisit that longing to have a calling more than a job. And during the proverbial mid-life crisis, it makes itself uncomfortably felt, when we ask ourselves yet again, 'What is life really all about?'

Tolerance is not enough to bridge the world’s differences, writes Mike Lowe. We need to engage.

Even the most pragmatic students become philosophers after reading Sophie's World, discovers Marta Sañudo.

Pierre Spoerri finds both inspiration and food for thought in Alain de Botton’s, ‘The consolations of philosophy’.

Some of the younger people attending the Caux conferences tell FAC about experiences that have changed their lives.

Russian essayist and philosopher Grigory Pomerants found his voice in a Soviet prison camp. He talks to Peter Thwaites

Philip Boobbyer, a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Kent, puts cleaning one's slate in a wider philosophical context.

Decadence means `falling away' from previously accepted norms and standards. But if the falling away takes place only in some areas, while there are new, creative developments in others, can we blanket the whole epoch as decadent?

In the green and wooded countryside which skirts Lake Geneva and has been civilized since Roman times, I found a unique juxtaposition. The convent of Fille Dieu sits quietly at the foot of the medieval town of Romont, neighboured by horses and sheep in lush fields. Within its walls, there has been constant prayer since 1253. There I met the Abbess, a French philosopher and nuclear physicist, who for the past 37 years has devoted herself to the life of the spirit.