In this essay, Dariush Shayegan examines the relationship between ideology, myth, and tradition, showing how tradition, once it enters the arena of modern political and philosophical competition, unwittingly adopts the logic of ideology. Through a critique of false consciousness, vulgar Marxism, and unreflective Westoxification, the text argues for the necessity of a critical stance toward the ideologization of religious and traditional thought.

In “Soroush Through Ghouchani’s Lens,” Behrouz Maleki examines Mohammad Ghouchani’s critique of Abdolkarim Soroush and asks whether the evidence presented is sufficient to characterize Soroush as anti-liberal, neo-Marxist, and authoritarian. Emphasizing the distinction between criticizing a proposition, criticizing a theory, and passing judgment on an intellectual figure, the article argues for the need to reconstruct a thinker’s ideas fairly before subjecting them to critique.

“Masked Liberalism” is a critique of Abdolkarim Soroush’s economic and political thought that revisits his views on industry, frugality, the free market, development, and the university to question his relationship with liberalism. The author argues that the persistence of some of Soroush’s positions from the 1980s to the present—particularly his critique of consumerism and technology and his emphasis on frugality—sits uneasily with the image of him as a liberal thinker.

The Last Messiah is the famous short essay by the Norwegian pessimistic philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe, in which he views human consciousness as a tragic evolutionary error and seeks the ultimate solution in antinatalism.

Is trusting the word of others incompatible with autonomy? A measured reliance on the views of others can itself be part of rationality—a conciliatory reading of the relationship between autonomy and testimony that explains its foundational place.

The demand for recognition and dignity is the driving engine of modern identity movements; but when this demand is repeatedly frustrated, it turns into a destructive emotion called ressentiment, which is the root of many protests and the transvaluation of values.

War can undermine children's sense of safety, leading to anxiety or behavioural regression. Parents can restore calm by maintaining household routines, limiting news exposure, and offering reassuring conversations about how adults are working to protect them.

The problem of divine hiddenness, which Schellenberg saw as incompatible with God's love, was reformulated around the attribute of guidance: greater divine manifestation would diminish the scope of human free will, and divine guidance suffices only to the necessary extent.