We meet monthly to discuss all kinds of texts from architecture to anthropology.
'The Lure of the City: from slums to suburbs' edited by Austin Williams and Alastair DonaldCities, by their very nature, are a mass of contradictions. They can be at once visually stunning, culturally rich, exploitative and unforgiving. This book explores the potential of cities to meet the economic, social and political challenges of the current age. The short, accessibly written essays are guaranteed to spark debate across the media and academia about the place of cities and urban life in our ever-changing world.
'The End of the West: the once and future Europe' by David MarquandHas Europe's extraordinary postwar recovery limped to an end? It would seem so. David Marquand argues that Europe's problems stem from outdated perceptions of global power, and calls for a drastic change in European governance to halt the continent's slide into irrelevance.
Tallis exposes the exaggerated claims made for the ability of neuroscience and evolutionary theory to explain human consciousness, behaviour, culture and society and promises to show that human beings are infinitely more interesting and complex than they appear in the mirror of ‘biologism’. By minimising the differences between humans and their nearest animal kin, we may find reasons for treating each other like them.
Looking at how Britain pays its way in the world today.This book is about the things that Britain produces from physical goods that we can see and feel, to intangible services that are much harder to quantify. We shouldn't assume finance is modern, and manufacturing. What matters is what sells and for how much.
'The
Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen' by
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Over the last few centuries, new democratic movements have led to the emancipation of women, slaves and the oppressed. What drove these modern changes, Appiah argues, was not imposing legislation from above but harnessing the ancient power of honour from within.
'The
Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life' by Bettany
Hughes
Socrates' aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated 25 centuries ago, but it's a founding principle of modern life.
David Shenk argues that talent- for piano playing, sprinting, designing computers, you name it - is not a thing we're gifted from birth and coded in our genes, but a process - a lifelong project. Integrating cutting-edge research from cognitive science, genetics, biology, child development - Shenk portrays a highly optimistic new view of human potential.
'The
Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the 21st
Century' by Stefan HalperForeign Affairs magazine writes: "Disagreeing with those who think that a search for respectability will lead China to scale back its relations with rogue states, Halper argues that Beijing is locked into such relationships due to its dependence on natural resources. Likewise, he doubts that China will democratize as it grows richer, because it is wealth that underwrites the regime's legitimacy. In Halper's telling, the real threat facing the West is the West's own failure to practice and promote its values."
'Beauty'
by Roger Scruton"Everything I have said about the experience of beauty implies that it is rationally founded."
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder, or is there some eternal essence that transcends personal experience? This is a fascinating book about beauty, that doesn't attempt to define it.
'Taming
the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents' by Ian BarumaBaruma asks whether religious ideas and practices undermine the very notion of the independent functions of a secular society; but he also wonders whether a secular framework of the rule of law is enough without the role of ethics, ideals, values and beliefs.
'Whole
Earth Discipline: An ecopragmatist manifesto' by Stewart BrandWith a combination of scientific analysis, Brand attempts to show where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and "creative" set of policies and solutions for producing a more sustainable society.'
'Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy' by Stephen Duncombe
"Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the cult of positive thinking in America - from the women with breast cancer who find themselves surrounded by pink ribbons and platitudes, to the refusal to consider negative outcomes in business which contributed directly to the recent economic disaster."
'The
Bully State: The End of Tolerance' by Brian Monteith"We won't lose the freedoms that we cherish by a military coup or some great cataclysmic war engulfing us, but through the gradual invasion of our private lives by the very politicians we elect to protect us - and all in the cause of looking after our health."
'The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work' by Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton here heads out into the under-charted worlds of the office, the factory, the fishing fleet and the logistics centre, ears and eyes open to the beauty, interest and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace. Along the way he tries to answer some of the most urgent questions we can ask about work: Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning?
The author charts Mugabe's gradual self-destruction, and uncovers the complicity of some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy. Probing the mystery of Africa's loyalty to one of its worst dictators, Holland explores the contradictions that cloud the life of a man who had embodied the continent's promise.
Today, the debate around civilization and its meaning has almost disappeared. If talked about at all, it will be as part of a different debate: the political tensions between different parts of the world, colonial history, developments in engineering. Yet the promise of civilization... can be a way of reconnecting grand, societal forces - economic liberty, social freedom - with the more intimate and deeper needs of life - wisdom, maturity, a flourishing of culture.
'The
Storm: the world economic crisis and what it means' by Vince CableVincent Cable explains the causes of the world economic crisis and how we should respond to the challenges it brings. Times of crises inevitably bring forth false prophets who offer easy panaceas. However, Cable shows that an insular response to the current crisis would be a disaster and urges us to resist the siren voices that promote isolationism and nationalism as the answer to economic woes.
'The
Suspicions of Mr Whicher' by Kate SummerscaleSubtitled, "Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective" this book won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2008 in a non-fiction story of a child murder at the dawn of detective work. The Guardian writes: "Whicher was a model for the stalwart copper in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone and the case inspired Dickens when he was writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It would be an exaggeration to say it launched detective fiction, but the link between true crime and the fiction it inspires was certainly forged."
'The
Bottom Billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what
can be done about it' by Paul CollierWhile most of the former impoverished nations are developing,
there is a persistant bottom billion of the worlds population
who remain as poor as ever. This book analyses the reasons for
this. Do NGO do more harm than good? Are elites of impoverished
countries to blame for their poverty. If the poorest nations cannot
develop for themselves, should the developed world intervene on
their behalf?
The
American Future: a history' by Simon Schama "The American Future: A History", takes the long view
of how the United States has come to this anguished moment of
truth about its own identity as a nation and its place in the
world.
'Trust:
self interest and the common good' by Marek KohnTrust - our belief in the truth or reliability of someone or something - lies at the very heart of our relationships, our society and our everyday lives. Much of the time we take it for granted. And yet trust, or the lack of it, is becoming an increasingly prominent issue in public life: politicians say they want to rebuild trust in politics; people look for new ways to trust each other in a world where relationships are easier to start and harder than ever to sustain; and we are no longer sure how much we trust experts on issues like the safety of food or medicine.
'Political
Hypocrisy: the mask of power from Hobbes to Orwell and beyond'
by David Runciman... tackles the issue of political hypocrisy not only in our own age, where personality and 'character' are emphasised in politics above political differences, but also in the history of liberal thought. It not only offers a defence of hypocrisy, but argues that it is essential to democracy, where the public has to be separate from the private. But is this to be too dismissive of the issue? Shouldn't we expect character and integrity in our politicians? Is the issue of hypocrisy today different from previous ages?
'Nudge:
Improving Decisions of Health, Wealth and Happiness' by Richard
Thaler and Cass Sunstein.Nowadays we are used to politicians lecturing us on how we should live. But would it be better if, rather than delivering moral sermons, those who governed us instead manipulated the environment to nudge us to make correct decisions? The authors of Nudge think so, and have named their approach 'libertarian paternalism'. Is this really a libertarian solution to the problem of choice, or a more insidious form of authoritarianism?
'The
World Without Us' by Alan WeismanWhile the idea that the world would be a better place without us is still confined to dinner table misanthropy, we are asked to reduce our impact in building and development, and to scale down our consumption. But is human impact such a negative as is made out to be?
'The
Return of History and the End of Dreams' by Robert KaganHopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities. Great powers are once again competing for influence. In his new book, Robert Kagan poses the questions facing the liberal democratic world today.
'What
Does China Think' by Mark LeonardWhile China has become an obsession within the West, we know almost nothing about what the Chinese themselves think. This book looks at the debates raging within China itself. from democracy to the idea of a 'peaceful rise', it challenges all of our assumptions about China, and opens up a hidden world of intellectual debate that is driving a new Chinese revolution and changing the face of the world. Presented by Sheila Lewis: Director, Volanti Consulting; lecturer and consultant on modern China.
'The
Islamist' by Ed HusainA personal story - from East London Muslim "choirboy" to Hizb ut-Tahrir operative and now to respectable PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies. It attempts to explain the apparent appeal of violent jihadi Islam. But is it overstated? Presented by Robin Walsh who will be chairing the final session of the Institute of Ideas Secularism 2008 Series "Flogging a dead horse: Can we make a positive case for atheism today?"
Read Robin Walsh's Review here
Read Martin Earnshaw's Review here
'The
Meaning of Life' by Terry EagletonEagleton notes that 'in this tension between the persisting need for meaning and the gnawing sense of its elusiveness, modernism can be genuinely tragic'. Dennis Hayes, Head of the Centre for Professional Learning, Canterbury Christ Church University and founder of Academics for Academic Freedom attempts to explain the meaning of this book.
'Immigrants:
Your Country Needs Them' by Philippe Legrain'All our imigration laws have is a veneer of decency, which conveniently allows us to turn a blind eye to their terrible consequences' (p42). Come and join us to examine Legrain's thought-provoking book on the need for free(r) immigration. Does he go too far; or not nearly far enough? Steve Nash presents. Read his review here
'China
in Africa' by Chris AldenExploring the economic, diplomatic and security rationales behind
Beijing's Africa policy as well as the response of African elites
to China. Stuart Simpson, author, 'Debt and Development:
Ghana - A Case Study' will introduce.
'The
Threat To Reason: How the Enlightenment was hijacked and how we
can reclaim it' by Dan Hind'We should be wary of what has been described elsewhere as ‘scientism’, the elevation of science to the status of a pseudo-religion in itself.' Presented: Dolan Cummings from Culture Wars and a founder member of the Manifesto Club.
Read his review here
'Rubbish:
Dirt on our hands and crisis ahead' by Richard GirlingCurrently a Trustee of the Tree Council, Girling is a senior feature writer for The Sunday Times Magazine he argues that although 'waste has always been a badge of affluence' that 'modern life is rubbish...'
Read Martin Earnshaw's review of Recycling Policy here.
Read Dave Clements' review of this book
DEBATING HUMANISM is a collection of essays by speakers at the Battle of Ideas 2005, exploring what humanism might mean for the 21st century. More than to sleep and feed, to be human is to debate, to argue, to think out loud and to engage with the ideas and opinions of others.
Broadly speaking, the humanist tradition is one in which it is we as human beings who decide for ourselves what is best for us, and are responsible for shaping our own societies. For humanists, then, debate is all the more important, not least at a time when there is much discussion about the unexpected return of religion as a political force determining how we should live.
visit the Institute of Ideas website for more information and to buy the book
Read Austin Williams' article Down with carbon colonialism in the online journal Spiked!
Please email us for further information or if you wish to be added to the Readers' Group mailing list
