What is preoccupying the world’s leading minds? Some might say leading physicists will be concentrating on physics, leading philosophers on philosophy, historians on history and so on. There is, I believe, likewise a new preoccupation lurking in the biggest brains of our time, and that theme is summed up in one word – identity. The precedents are not happy: religious, racial and national identities have come to the forefront of thinking during war, strife or dictatorships. Until recently, they wouldn’t have loomed so large on any plausible list of top thinkers drawn up in the west.

Source: The Guardian July 17, 2019 07:01 UTC