Fail better
Nina Power says the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth is worth celebrating
Ideas
Meme Wars (part 1)
Evolution cannot explain culture: there are limits to the uses of Darwinism, says Adam Kuper
Meme Wars (part 2)
Natural selection applies to everything. Ideas evolve just as life does, says Susan Blackmore
Intelligent design
Jonathan Derbyshire witnesses the strange death of the public thinker
Pleasure principles
In the second of our series on thinkers who are significant for humanism, Peter Cave marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Stuart Mill
Best of enemies
Capitalism and central planning need each other, argues Steven Lukes
Reasonable bounds
Continuing our series reclaiming thinkers for humanism, AC Grayling celebrates Immanuel Kant
Remarkable things
How should sociology respond to a globalised world? Les Back recommends a return to the link between individual stories and the bigger picture
Game theory
Peter Cave tries some thought experiments
United states?
Kalypso Nicolaïdis puts her faith in the idea of Europe