Archive - L'esprit de l'escalier

Islamophobia, homophobia and the moral imagination

The disingenuous rhetoric of ‘phobias’ impoverishes both moral and political thought

Jun 12 •

May 2025

Understanding the 'pretender ideology'

How woke rules our institutions without capturing our hearts

May 14 •

April 2025

A short story for Easter

Apr 17 •

March 2025

Shibboleths, ‘badge words’ and the need for lexical charity

Our choice of words says more than we sometimes mean

Mar 19 •

February 2025

Liberal modernity and the three Fs

There is nothing post-liberal, or pre-modern, about faith, flag and family

Feb 19 •

January 2025

The trouble with the history of ideas

.. or ‘No, Jean-Jacques Rousseau does not have a lot to answer for’

Jan 22 •

December 2024

In praise of the aged

Old people belong to the present, not to the past

Dec 18, 2024 •

November 2024

Life is not a laboratory

On serendipity, decision-making and the romance of reality

Nov 22, 2024 •

October 2024

The limits of critical thinking

Doubt is just one of the intellectual virtues

Oct 16, 2024 •

September 2024

In praise of praise

How the right words at the right moment affirm our humanity

Sep 14, 2024 •

July 2024

The spectre of 'classism'

..and the chimera of ‘equality of opportunity’

Jul 20, 2024 •

June 2024

Freedom without norms?

Lives, livelihoods and our way of life (Part 2 of 2)

Jun 8, 2024 •

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