Amid the research targets and funding reforms our once world-leading centres for higher learning have lost their way. Laurie Taylor meets Stefan Collini, the Cambridge don mounting a fight back
Elizabeth Wilson lays her cards on the table
Alain de Botton thinks atheists should take the best ideas from religion, and leave the bad stuff behind. Caspar Melville goes in search of enlightenment
A perplexing plane puzzle from Quizmaster Chris Maslanka
Nina Power puzzles over a heavyweight intellectual partnership
Hannah Arendt’s humanism was not the opposite of religion but of self-absorption and totalitarianism, says Finn Bowring
This year, The Simpsons celebrate their 25th birthday and their 500th episode. Andrew Mueller pays homage to the family we can all believe in
Chris Maslanka challenges you to work out the Three Bears' exam results
Jenny Bunker enjoys an unusual introduction to Hume
Where did religion come from? Keith Kahn-Harris reviews a monumental study