Author Archives: Kenan Malik

A SNIPPET OF THE QUEST: ON NIETZSCHE’S GENEALOGY

September 23, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is the last (for the moment) of the snippets I have been publishing from The Quest for a Moral Compass. Taken from Chapter 14, ‘The Death of God, the end of morality’, it discusses a very different history of morality to mine – Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals. . From The Quest for a Moral Compass, pp 241-246 Beneath the light and the froth and the absurd self-regardof Nietzsche’s work lay an engagement with the most profoundly unsettling issues […]

Categories: History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: christianity, greek philosophy, history of moral thought, nietzsche, religion, socrates

DARKNESS FALLS ON MANHATTAN

September 20, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Yes, I know, it’s a photographic cliché. But as a photographic subject, New York at night is quite enthralling. So here is Manhattan as darkness descends, seen from five different perspectives – towards the Satue of Liberty, from Brooklyn Bridge, from beneath the bridges that span the East River, from the East River itself and the Hudson, from the High Line, New York’s new elevated park reclaimed from an old train line (I will publish a proper portrait of the […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: new york, nightime

A SNIPPET OF THE QUEST: ISLAM’S LOST TRADITIONS

September 17, 2014 by Kenan Malik

The US and Canadian edition of The Quest for a Moral Compass is now out. I am in New York and Toronto to talk about it. While I am away, I am publishing on Pandaemonium short extracts from the book. This first two snippets were on Aeschylus’ Oresteia and the philosophy of Mo Tzu. This third extract is from Chapter 8, and looks at the battle between the Rationalists and the Traditionalists in early Islamic philosophy. . From The Quest […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: al-ghazzali, al-kindi, history of moral thought, ibn rushd, ibn sina, islam, islamic philosophy, muslim rationalism, religion, theology

A SNIPPET FROM THE QUEST: MO TZU, LOST IN HISTORY

September 14, 2014 by Kenan Malik

The North American edition of The Quest for a Moral Compass is published this week by Melville House. I am in New York and Toronto to talk about it. While I am away, I am publishing on Pandaemonium short extracts from the book. This first snippet on Monday was from Chapter 1, and discussed Aeschylus’ Oresteia. This second snippet is from Chapter 6 and explores the ideas of Mo Tzu, a Chinese philosopher lost in history but whose significance is […]

Categories: History, History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: china, chinese philosophy, confucianism, history of moral thought, mo tzu, mohism, universalism, utilitarianism

ODE TO NEW YORK

September 11, 2014 by Kenan Malik

On the anniversary of 9/11, and while I am in the city, here is a collection of some of my favourite poems about New York. It is, as ever, an eclectic choice. There are many others that I might have included (Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, Claude McKay, Elizabeth Bishop, to name but a few) if I had the space, but I decided to restrict myself to seven. There are many that I have forgotten, many more that I simply don’t […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: 9/11, langston hughes, leopold senghor, lola ridge, lorca, new york, poetry

A SNIPPET OF THE QUEST: FROM HONOUR TO JUSTICE

September 8, 2014 by Kenan Malik

The North American edition of The Quest for a Moral Compass is published this week by Melville House. I will be in New York and Toronto to talk about it. While I am away, I will be publishing on Pandaemonium short extracts from the book. This first snippet is from Chapter 1, and discusses Aeschylus’ trilogy of tragedies, the Oresteia, and what it reveals to us about the transformation of Greek moral thought. I have previously published the opening section […]

Categories: History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: aeschylus, ethics, greek philosophy, greek tragedy, history of moral thought, homer

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE: FROM WHAT, FOR WHAT?

September 5, 2014 by Kenan Malik

There are two fundamental issues at the heart of the Scottish independence debate: Independence from what? And for what? The answers to both questions seem obvious. Independence for Scotland means independence from the UK, or, more specifically, from rule from London. And it would be independence for Scotland to pursue its own policies. Dig a little deeper, though, and we find that the answers are not nearly so straightforward. The nationalists seem strangely reluctant truly to break away from Westminster. […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: british politics, britishness, identity politics, nationalism, populism, scottish independence, ukip

COMING TO AMERICA (AND TORONTO)

September 3, 2014 by Kenan Malik

The US and Canadian edition of The Quest for a Moral Compass will be published next week by Melville House. I am coming to New York and Toronto to promote it, mainly doing media interviews, but giving a few talks too: Friday, 12 September ‘The Quest for a Moral Compass’ Paduano Seminar New York University Stern School of Business Ethics Kauffman Management Centre 44 West Fourth Street 15.00 Details from the NYU Stern School. . Monday, 15 September ‘What does […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: history of moral thought, kenan malik's books, talks

FAITH IN RUINS

August 31, 2014 by Kenan Malik

I recently visited Lindisfarne Priory. Set on Holy Island off the Northumberland coast (it was the Romans who first called it Insula Sacra), there is something quite otherworldly about the ruins. Part of what makes Lindisfarne so ethereal is that Holy Island is not quite an island. As Sir Walter Scott put it in his poem Marmion, For, with the flow and ebb its stile Varies from continent to isle At high tide, Holy Island is an island. But at […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: architecture, christianity, churches, lindisfarne, religion, ruins

THE MANY MYTHS OF IDENTITY, THE MANY WAYS OF BEING ME

August 28, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the essay on Britishness, patriotism and identity, published last month in the New York Times under the headline ‘On Britishness and Belonging’. How times change. Last week I was at the Lord’s cricket ground in London – the ‘home of cricket’ as England cricket administrators like to boast – to see England play India. I was born in India. Yet, I was cheering on England. Thirty years ago I certainly would not have been. […]

Categories: Britain, Kenan Malik, Race & Immigration, Sport • Tags: britain, britishness, cricket, englishness, identity politics, national identity, patriotism, racism, sport

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ON CIVILIZATIONS

August 26, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Another review from the archives while I am away, the last hopefully before normal service resumes on Pandaemonium. This is a review of Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s Civilizations, first published in the Independent on Sunday, 8 October 2000. ‘It can now be asserted upon convincing evidence that savagery preceded barbarism in all the tribes of mankind, as barbarism is known to have preceded civilization.’ So wrote Victorian anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1877 classic Ancient Societies. According to Morgan, savagery, barbarism […]

Categories: Culture & Books, History, Human • Tags: civilization, fernandez armesto, human nature, progress

ANTI-POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF HATRED

August 23, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is my latest column for the International New York Times, published under the headline ‘Enough Hate for Everyone’. A few years ago, I was a guest on Start the Week, a BBC radio discussion show. Among the other guests was the novelist Eva Figes, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany and a fierce critic of Israel. Israel, she suggested, would have built gas chambers to exterminate the Palestinians but for the fear it would ‘be found out’. What astonished […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, anti-politics, anti-semitism, eva figes, identity politics, israel, muslims

FROM THE ARCHIVES: BETWEEN CAMPS

August 21, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Continuing to plunder the archives while I am away, this is the third in my series of old book reviews on the theme of race, identity and difference. It is a review of Paul Gilroy’s Between Camps and Yasmin Alibhai Brown’s Who Do We Think We Are?, first published in the Independent on Sunday, 11 June 2000. . Review of Paul Gilroy, Between Camps: Nations, Culture and the Allure of Race (Allen Lane, 2000) and Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Who Do […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: black identity, britishness, diaspora, englishness, frantz fanon, humanism, identity politics, paul gilroy, racism, yasmin alibhai brown

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ILLUSIONS OF IDENTITY

August 18, 2014 by Kenan Malik

As I am away for a couple of weeks, I am plundering the archives. This is the second in a series of old book reviews on the themes of race, difference and identity material that I have not previously published on Pandaemonium. This is an interview with Amartya Sen, and a review of his book Identity and Violence, first published in Prospect, August 2006. . Review of Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusions of Destiny (Allen Lane, 2006) Just […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Multiculturalism • Tags: amartya sen, british politics, identity politics, islam, multiculturalism

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ORNAMENTALISM

August 15, 2014 by Kenan Malik

I am away for a couple of weeks, so the next few posts will be from the archives – old material that I have not previously published on Pandaemonium. All will, in fact, be book reviews that explore themes of race, difference and identity. This first is a review of David Cannadine’s Ornamentalism, first published in the New Statesman, 7 May 2001. . Review of David Cannadine, Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (Allen Lane, 2001) In October 1865, […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, History • Tags: british empire, david cannadine, edward said, equality, imperialism, orientalism, racism, universalism