Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy at the New School, condemned killings in Gaza carried out by the Israeli military A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces. Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research in New York, said she had been cancelled by the university, which has withdrawn its invitation to the Albertus Magnus Professorship ..read more

Readers respond to Alex Blasdel’s long read on the studies of brain activity immediately after death Alex Blasdel’s long read contains some fascinating facts and speculations (The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense, 2 April). However, it is odd to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences – physicalist, parapsychological and spiritualist. While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of “kooks and grifters”, many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are ..read more

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Is it possible to think about nothing? Surely our consciousness is always whirring away. Paul Lambert, Southampton Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com ..read more

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Is it possible to think about nothing? Surely our consciousness is always whirring away. Paul Lambert, Southampton Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday ..read more

Early risers know only too well the smug satisfaction of getting up and getting going. But what if you’re more of an owl than a lark? Here’s how to change your body clock and seize the day I can’t actually remember when I first started thinking of myself as a “morning person”. When I was in my 20s, the only time I saw a sunrise was if I stayed up all night – I had a series of jobs that let me stroll from bed to work in about 15 minutes. If I ever did overtime it was until one or two in the morning, trying to string together words on a combination of tea, beer and deadline adrenaline. Fast forw ..read more

Dancing on Marx’s graveMulti-faith peace marchMen’s underwearScallop or scollop?Baffle over waffle Benny Green once said: “Four years after Tennyson died, Alfred Austin succeeded him as poet laureate. A better idea would have been to dig up Tennyson.” The trustees of Highgate cemetery should watch out (£25,000 for a burial plot next to Karl Marx? The philosopher would turn in his grave, 17 January). In view of the misappropriation and perversion of his ideas for practically the whole of the 20th century by assorted Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists and obscurantist philosophers, we might feel th ..read more

Horizon developer and the Post Office are latest in a long line of corporate behemoths whose snappy slogans have fallen short The idea that every business needs a messianic mission statement took hold in the 1970s, to “humanise” faceless global corporations. The management guru Peter Drucker was a prime mover of the idea. A good mission statement, Drucker said, should be “short enough to fit on a T-shirt”. Its message should be “broad, even eternal” and “every board member, volunteer, and staff person should be able to see the mission and say, ‘Yes. This is something I want to be remembered fo ..read more

With war in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere, and an authoritarian drift in global politics, the season’s message of optimism is much needed In her traditional Christmas message this week, the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, turned to a much-loved work by the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson. In “Hope” Is the Thing With Feathers, Dickinson imagines hope as a small bird that “perches in the soul”, never ceasing to sing and sounding sweetest in the eye of life’s storms. As Dame Sarah says, the metaphor is a beautiful one that can both console and inspire. Christian tradition has long ..read more

Teaching the Enlightenment reminded me that the worse the world seems, the harder you have to hold on to your principles What brought us hope and joy in 2023? Writers share their stories The moment of 2023 that gave me hope was one in which I thought all hope was lost. It was a Friday morning, in the middle of October, and I had just started exploring with my students Immanuel Kant’s 1784 essay, What Is Enlightenment? Most people tend to think of hope as an attitude that sits somewhere between a desire and a belief: a desire for a certain outcome and the belief that something favours its rea ..read more

I found Saturnalia and Sinterklaas and learned that December has always been about hope, which is surely something to celebrate When I was a kid, I loved midnight mass. I would watch Carols by Candlelight on TV then Mum would give us a snack and we would head out into the night. When we got home, we would leave out a beer and a plate of biscuits for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, all of which would be gone by the morning, replaced by a sleigh-load of gifts under the tree. On Christmas Day my family would gather, tell the terrible jokes from the Christmas crackers, wear the paper crowns and ea ..read more