You are browsing: Ideas

  • Slings & arrows

    Evolutionary archaeologist Timothy Taylor on the outrageous fortune that made us the dominant ape

  • Who are you calling a fanatic?

    Rationalists should think twice about using a term which has, in its day, been used to condemn those who struggle for freedom and equality, says Alberto Toscano

  • Of human greed: Laurie Taylor interviews David Harvey

    A search for the reasons for the economic meltdown has prompted a turn back to Marx. Laurie Taylor meets the “dialectical materialist” geographer David Harvey who, 40 years into his career, is suddenly being taken seriously

  • Variety

    The American philosopher William James died a hundred years ago. Jonathan Rée calls for a return to his humane example

  • Book Review: Is God Still an Englishman? by Cole Moreton

    Francis Beckett finds out whether the English have lost their soul

  • Thinkers: Voltaire

    Fame and fortune allowed the great 18th-century writer to challenge the powers of the state, says Ian Davidson

  • For uselessness!

    In the UK the axe is falling on philosophy departments. Nina Power reports from the frontline

  • Book Review: On Evil by Terry Eagleton

    Beneath the diaphanous veil of ambiguity, the wit and the nuance-sense Terry Eagleton fails to get to the real heart of darkness, says AC Grayling

  • Gloom merchant

    To be truly happy we must be pessimistic, says Roger Scruton

  • Shadow pope

    What do the Pope and the secular philosopher Jürgen Habermas have in common, asks Jonathan Rée