Charles Blattberg

Here is an important, but disturbing, book about Gandhi. It is important because it offers an interpretation that runs against the grain of the “domesticated” Gandhi that can be found in a tradition of books that includes Joan V. Bondurant’s Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, Bhikhu Parekh’s Gandhi’s Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination and Ramin Jahanbegloo’s recent The Gandhian Moment…

It was only when I became a parent that I truly came to know fear. There are powerful instincts behind one’s sense of protectiveness, to be sure, but also much more than that. There is also, of course, one’s love for the child, as well as, unlike with the others you love, an awareness of the child’s utter innocence and…

In November 2003, an extraordinary exchange was broadcast on French television. Nicolas Sarkozy, who would soon become president, was debating Tariq Ramadan, the controversial Swiss-born Muslim theologian. At one point Sarkozy attempted to throw Ramadan off balance by challenging him on his position on the “monstrous” view—held by Ramadan’s brother, among others—that Muslim law requires the stoning of adulterous…

A conversational response to an ethical or political conflict sounds like something relaxed and congenial. In fact, few things are more challenging, for the interlocutors must be truly willing to listen to each other, and hence be open to making sometimes radical transformations of their own positions. It goes almost without saying that this challenge is especially acute in a multicultural democracy such as…