Philosophy

Teaching Peace Teaching Peace

If peacemaking is teachable, why are school so reluctant to offer classes in peace studies?

Aug 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Colman McCarthy

Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor

Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor is a sadly endangered type: the philosopher-statesman.

Aug 10, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Mark Oppenheimer

David Brooks

The Dumbest Story Ever Told: On David Brooks The Dumbest Story Ever Told: On David Brooks

The Social Animal is a deep and public embarrassment, a lumpy hybrid of fable, neuroscience and social engineering.

May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Gary Greenberg

Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom

Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom

Since the ’70s, liberals and leftists have misidentified the source of conservatism’s appeal.

Apr 6, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Corey Robin

Being in the World: On James Miller

Being in the World: On James Miller Being in the World: On James Miller

With Examined Lives, James Miller offers a serious and readable study of the relationship between philosophy and life conduct.

Feb 17, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Richard Wolin

Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss

Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss

With a sharp eye for cultural patterns and a keen feel for the shape of a story, Claude Lévi-Strauss was a poet in the laboratory of anthropology.

Jan 19, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney

Risk the Game: On William James

Risk the Game: On William James Risk the Game: On William James

For William James, all our certitudes depend on the pretense that there are no radical mysteries underlying them.

Nov 23, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Marilynne Robinson

The Group: On George Price

The Group: On George Price The Group: On George Price

The enigma of George Price: He derived an equation for the evolution of altruism, yet he died believing himself a failed good Samaritan.

Sep 22, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Miriam Markowitz

The Renunciation Artist: On Leo Tolstoy The Renunciation Artist: On Leo Tolstoy

The axis of moral struggle, a stroke of salvation--these are the spiritual dimensions of Tolstoy's late fiction.

Feb 11, 2010 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

This Seeming Brow of Justice This Seeming Brow of Justice

In their discussions of justice, Michael Sandel and Amartya Sen endorse communal good but slight collective endeavor.

Nov 19, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn

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