Because you’re worth it?
It can cure cancer, make you rich and even foster world peace, claim its advocates. But what proof is there, asks Ben Fine, that social capital has any benefits at…
Ideas
“To forgive, divine?”
Is forgiveness just for the devout? asks Eve Garrad
Q&A: Marilynne Robinson
She has won the Pulitzer and Orange prizes for her fiction, and been called the greatest writer of prose in the English language. With her new book she enters the…
No nonsense: Laurie Taylor interviews Mary Warnock
Philosopher Mary Warnock tells Laurie Taylor why religion and politics shouldn’t mix
Doing fine now
Is the glass half full? Half empty? Just be glad you’ve got a drink says Julian Baggini
Book review: Neoconservatism by Justin Vaisse
Anatol Lieven assesses the past and future of an idea
The listeners
Les Back on the ordinary virtues of paying attention
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…