How to defend the Enlightenment
A full transcript of the discussion between Anthony Grayling and Tzvetan Todorov in London, December 2009
Ideas
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce by Slavoj Žižek
Owen Hatherley finds Žižek actually making sense
Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World by Barbara Ehrenreich
Keith Kahn-Harris enjoys Barbara Ehrenreich's antidote to positive thinking
What happened to the women’s movement?
Elizabeth Wilson reviews two new books on how to revive feminism
Living the life
Should philosophers practise what they preach? And if so, who would deserve a contemporary nomination? asks Fred Inglis
Beyond belief
Some sophisticated arguments for God have been made in response to the New Atheists. Richard Norman puts the ‘New Believers’ to the test. Illustrations by Irene Fuga
Better, juster, nobler
A new collection of his essays on religion suggest that JS Mill is just the enlightened infidel we need today, says Jonathan Rée
Atheism in Christianity by Ernst Bloch
Owen Hatherley sings the praises of Ernst Bloch, the prophet of serious atheism
Think again
Postmodern theory can be pretentious and overblown. But a series of reissues now attempts to reclaim its importance. Nina Power assesses its impact
Thinking animal
Darwinism has profound implications for philosophy, but we need to remember the master’s caution, warns Simon Blackburn