The philosophical necessity of long-term thinking
Reviewed here What We Owe the Future: A Million-Year View by William MacAskill (RRP: £20) Buy on Bookshop.org Prospect receives commission when you buy a book using this page. Thank you for supporting...
View ArticlePhilosopher at large: Are markets amoral?
In 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, the American philosopher Michael Sandel was heralding the end of an era characterised by heady, reckless deregulation. He was referring to Thatcher and...
View ArticleKieran Setiya: The modern self-help manifesto is intrinsically selfish
Kieran Setiya is fascinated by the various maladies inherent to the human condition. In his new book, Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, the British-born MIT professor takes us on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Goethe and Schiller ushered in the romantic age
Reviewed here Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self by by Andrea Wulf (RRP: £25) Buy on Bookshop.org Prospect receives commission when you buy a book using this page....
View ArticleIs there a philosophical case for climate compensation?
As climate change accelerates, insisting that we’re all in it together glosses over the reality that some are up to their necks in it while others are barely getting their feet wet. The rhetoric of...
View ArticleThe philosophical meaning of equality
It doesn’t take children long to notice that the world is unfair. Very smart adults, however, can spend a lifetime trying to work out what “fair” means without reaching a conclusion. In The Idea of...
View ArticleGod, creator of the universe (they/them)
Take divinity. Mix with gender. Add pronouns. Stand well back. Wear safety goggles. The Church of England, worried that it might be going through a bit of a quiet period and sensing the need to stir...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Charles’s coronation could be a spiritual flop
Millions of us will soon be watching a coronation ceremony that purports to be largely unchanged for 1,000 years. It will radiate spiritual splendour and, to most, will seem timeless in a world of...
View ArticleNo, you don’t have a right to happiness
After life and liberty, the US Declaration of Independence identifies “the pursuit of Happiness” as an “unalienable Right”. No nation, however, has been foolish enough to assert the right to possess,...
View ArticleNina Power: ‘Outrage is a bad mode for politics’
Rural Wiltshire doesn’t offer much in the way of entertainment for children. “The world that existed to me,” Nina Power says, “was the books my parents owned and the music my dad played.” One song has...
View Article