The Montreal Review | Books, Art, Culture

The central contention of the "New Atheism" of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that there has for several centuries been a war between science and religion, that religion has been steadily losing that war... | read |

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DIGNITY

BY DONNA HICKS

Dignity: The Essential Role it Plays in Resolving Conflict reveals a hidden force within us so powerful that it can affect the way we feel about ourselves, our relationships... | read |

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ON THE ORIGIN OF STORIES

BY BRIAN BOYD

Who doesn't love stories? On page, stage or screen, fiction can be as engrossing as sex. But why do we need to explain why we love fiction, any more than why we enjoy sex? | read |

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BETWEEN SENSE AND DE KOONING

BY RICHARD SHIFF

Even as he became a celebrity in the world of art, Willem de Kooning took pride in remaining an ordinary man, living (he liked to say) as he had when he was unknown and poor. He resisted the aesthetic and intellectual fashions of his era... | read |

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PSYCHOLOGY AND CATHOLICISM

BY ROBERT KUGELMANN

Relationships between sciences and religions are a thorny issue in our day. All too often, dogmatic statements proclaim animosity between them, as when atheist thinkers condemn religion in the name of science, or when fundamentalist Christians usurp scientific authority by reference to the Book of Genesis...| read |

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BRAINTRUST: WHAT NEUROSCIENCE TELLS US ABOUT MORALITY

BY PATRICIA SMITH CHURCHLAND

Self-preservation is embodied in our brain's circuitry: we seek food when hungry, warmth when cold, and sex when lusty. In the evolution of the mammalian brain, circuitry for regulating one's own survival and well-being was modified... | read |

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WHY WE COOPERATE

BY MICHAEL TOMASELLO

As we read the newspaper each day, most of us ask ourselves why people can't be nicer to one another, more helpful, more cooperative? And indeed, one could phrase the central normative question of the social sciences... | read |

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THE CLASH OF IDEAS IN WORLD POLITICS

BY JOHN M. OWEN IV

The Arab Awakening - the chain of rebellions and revolutions that have rocked the Arab world since last December - has riveted the attention of people the world over... | read |

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NEITHER BEAST NOR GOD

BY GILBERT MEILAENDER

The term 'dignity' has been used with increasing frequency--but in very different ways--in the field of bioethics... | read |

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AGE OF FRACTURE

BY DANIEL T. RODGERS

In the midst of a heated political discussion, you may still hear it said that ideas don't matter. Ideas are mere veils, we say: gauze draped over the harder stuff of interests and prejudice... | read |

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BLIND SPOTS

BY MAX H. BAZERMAN AND ANN E. TENBRUNSEL

During the trying times that have followed the financial collapse of 2008, a long list of culprits has been blamed: homebuyers, mortgage lenders, bankers, Congress, and the Bush administration... | read

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ON INTELLIGENCE

BY MICHAEL MILBURN

Although I recognized the concept of intelligence from an early age, it wasn't until high school that I realized that being smart meant more than getting good grades, and that different people could be smart in different ways... | read |

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BOOKS | DARWIN'S CONJECTURE

BY GEOFFREY M. HODGSON and THORBJORN KNUDSEN

Social scientists have been wary of applying Darwin's ideas. In our book Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution we argue that these misgivings are ungrounded... | read |

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BOOKS | HUMAN DIGNITY

BY GEORGE KATEB

My book is a defense of human dignity. I mean that it is a defense of the equal status of individuals or persons vis-à-vis one another, and a defense of the superior stature of the human species vis-à-vis all others species... | read |

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BOOKS | ECONOMIC ORIGINS OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY

BY ROBERT B. EKELUND Jr. and ROBERT D. TOLLISON

The Roman Catholic Church, a principal world religion today in competition with other Christian faiths, had, by 1600, achieved dominance over huge swaths of Europe... | read |

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IDEAS | THE CURRENT CRISIS AND THE ESSENCE OF CAPITALISM

THOMAS K. McCRAW

The worldwide economic downturn is no short-term blip but a full-fledged crisis of capitalism. Amid the din of commentary and political posturing, it is appropriate to return to first principles for a better understanding of the crisis. What are these principles? The answer requires a foray into history... | read |

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BOOKS | GOD AFTER DARWIN

BY JOHN F. HAUGHT

Evolutionary biology claims that organisms and species are the product of three main factors: accidental variations or mutations, blind natural selection, and an enormous amount of time... | read |

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BOOKS | THE ANCIENT ORACLES

BY RICHARD STONEMAN

For more than a thousand years, the peoples of ancient Greece consulted oracles for guidance. In political decisions or in the quandaries of daily life, they turned to the gods (usually Apollo), and asked for advice in words... | read |

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BOOKS | HOW DID I BECOME "ME"?

BY MEL THOMPSON

When I meet someone, I know them to be a person. I can start to get to know them, learn their history, their views, their aspirations. I may immediately sense... | read |

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IRAN'S CONTINUING CHALLENGE

BY ADAM C. SEITZ AND ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN

The Islamic Republic of Iran presents a wide range of challenges in a region that is already plagued by insecurity and conflict... | read |

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CHINA'S MEDIA: A STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

BY JAMES F. SCOTTON

Almost all the media in China -- the Xinhua national news agency, Central China Television (CCTV), some 2,100 newspapers, 9,000 periodicals, nearly 400 television stations, 200 radio stations and every book publisher-are owned by the government... | read |

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REVOLUTION: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

BY JAMES DEFRONZO AND JUNGYUN GILL

Revolutions amaze the world and can change it radically. The American, French and Russian Revolutions thrilled millions while simultaneously filling others with dread... | read |

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COLD WAR | FROM COMRADES TO ENEMIES

NICHOLAS KHOO

In a speech at Da Binh Square, Hanoi on 12 May 1963, Liu Shaoqi, a senior Chinese leader characterized the Sino-Vietnamese relationship as having been "forged in the storm of revolution, a great class friendship that is proletarian internationalist in character, a friendship that is indestructible"... | read |

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ISLAM AND CAPITALISM, REVISITED

BY DAROMIR RUDNYCKYJ

Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa have prompted renewed interest in the work of Max Weber, the great German sociologist who documented the correlation between Protestantism and economic development in Europe and North America... | read |

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