God, Justice, Love, Beauty (Book)

Jean-Luc Nancy’s “God, Justice, Love, Beauty”; Barbara Vine’s “A Dark-Adapted Eye”Hans MemlingDear readers,Happy Saturday. Today I pop in with two book recommendations — we’re visiting the philosophy and suspense aisles — and a quick personal note, which is that I am expecting a baby soon. (I mean, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but all signs do point to “impending baby”…)If all goes well, I’ll be off the newsletter beat for a couple of months while conducting field studies in child husbandry. Recommendations will continue to be furnished by the gang of well-read colleagues you’ve come to know and love.See you on the other side.—Molly“God, Justice, Love, Beauty: Four Little Dialogues,” by Jean-Luc Nancy; translated by Sarah CliftNonfiction, 2011How does one discuss philosophy with children? Midway through the first of four lectures in Jean-Luc Nancy’s book, a reader begins to suspect that the answer is: a lot more easily than with adults. Beginning in the early 2000s Nancy, a French philosopher, embarked on a project of “little dialogues” in which he delivered thoughts on Big Topics — love, God, justice, beauty — to an audience of schoolchildren. Each presentation was followed by a Q. and A. where the students posed questions to Nancy about his ideas; these exchanges are included in the volume and are its true joy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More