Justin E.H. Smith is a professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris. He is the author, most recently, of Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason (Princeton University Press, 2019).
Stories by This Author
The Review
Intellectual curiosity has been replaced by pro forma attention to representation.
The Review
No other idea from the humanities had so vast, if murky, an influence.
The Review
It plays on our vanity to reduce research to a popularity contest.
The Review
Their future is in their past, and philology is the key.
The Chronicle Review
Democracy and the death penalty are irreconcilable.
The Chronicle Review
Yes, Charlie Hebdo-type humor is sometimes base. So is humanity, and we need gloomy jesters to remind us of that.
The Chronicle Review
There’s nothing unnatural about human beings’ wholesale destruction of fellow species. That’s the problem.
The Chronicle Review
Revulsion can be a many-splendored thing. Recent books on it by philosophers are missing some of its nifty, nasty nuances.
The Chronicle Review
Wild beasts have always mirrored both our primordial pride and our deepest fears.