Start The Week

In the first programme of the New Year Adam Rutherford follows two possible guides to a more fulfilled life – Socrates and optimism – but asks whether either has any answers to dealing with racism. The philosopher Agnes Callard proposes the questioning Socratic method in Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. She shows that this ancient method offers a new ethics to live by, from answering questions about identity and inequality, to helping us love and die well. But to truly flourish we also need a huge dose of optimism, according to the science writer Sumit Paul-Choudhury. In The Bright Side he argues that being optimistic is not only central to the human psyche, but plays a crucial role in overcoming the challenges of the twenty-first century.The social psychologist Keon West is more sceptical. In his new book The Science of Racism, he challenges those – a reputed half of the population – who think that racism doesn’t exist. He goes back to the data and research to reveal the extent and prevalenc