Book review – philosophy
A world history of morality is maddeningly optimistic
Peaceful co-operation is essential for human survival, and our present ‘feast of feverish discord and hatred’ is bound to be replaced by one of ‘calm and community’, says Hanno Saur
The British Empire’s latest crime – to have ended the Enlightenment
Richard Whatmore sees trade and colonisation in the 19th century as the great threat to Enlightenment ideals, and British imperialism as an unremitting force of darkness
Do we really need to read Isaiah Berlin’s every last word?
This is a fascinating example of a small genre, in which the author decides at an early stage in his…
What does John Gray’s anti-atheism amount to?
K. Chesterton, in one of his wise and gracious apothegms, once wrote that ‘When Man ceases to worship God he…
Only an idiot would choose to live at any other time than the present
Steven Pinker’s new book is a characteristically fluent, decisive and data-rich demonstration of why, given the chance to live at…
Sartre, de Beauvoir and Sheffield teenagers; the weird glamour of existentialism
We all carried their philosophy around in our youth, says Philip Hensher. But did anyone — including the existentialists themselves — really understand it?
John Gray’s great tour-guide of ideas: from the Garden of Eden to secret rendition
You can’t accuse John Gray of dodging the big questions, or indeed the big answers. His new book The Soul…
Why don't we have statues of Michael Oakeshott?
Who or what was Michael Oakeshott? How many of our fellow citizens — how many even of the readers of…
Christianity is the foundation of our freedoms
If there is one underlying source from which all our other societal problems stem, it is surely this: we no…
