Philosophy
Bernard-Henri Lévy & Aleksandr Dugin
The Return of Settembrini and Naphta in the 21st Century
Lévy and Dugin fight for the soul of Europe in the spirit of Thomas Mann’s Settembrini and Naphta.
Essays
Nexus has been publishing essays in Dutch on art, culture, politics and philosophy for over twenty years. Now, we are making some of the best essays from our archive available in English online. The essays are available to our members and supporters. New essays will be added regularly.
Nederlandstalige essays uit het tijdschrift vindt u aan de Nederlandse kant van de website.
Philosophy
Antonio Damasio
Arcadia, But Not for Long
What should we choose: ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’, colorful, edgy, expanding modern urbanity – or a rustic hill overlooking an Alpine lake?
Literature
G.K. Chesterton
A Defence of China Shepherdesses
There are ideal conceptions and real men in every calling.
Politics
Ana Palacio
The Mutating World
Ana Palacio charts the history of the baby boomers and analyses threats to liberal democracy today.
History
Adrienne Clarkson
A Refugee’s Life
The story of how a child of Chinese refugees who came to Canada as a two-year-old became Governor-General.
History
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Time Ticks Away
Gopalkrishna Gandhi reflects on his childhood, his famous grandfather, and the struggle against nuclear armaments.
History
Benjamin Ferencz
Ruminations of the Last Nuremberg Prosecutor
Benjamin Ferencz, last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, on his life and work.
Culture, Music
An Education in Counterculture
A conversation on counterculture with Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Sean Wilentz.
Literature
Bernard-Henri Lévy
A Letter to Jean Deprun
Bernard-Henri Lévy writes to an unlikely hero: his teacher at the École Normale Superieure, Jean Deprun.
Literature, Politics
Aykan Erdemir
Teaching Transgression
Aykan Erdemir writes to his teacher, Nalan Göker, who taught him about rules and when to break them.
Literature
Leon Wieseltier
The Cheese Man
Leon Wieseltier on his first encounter with philosophy in a small Brooklyn delicatessen.
Politics
Kishore Mahbubani
Letter to Mr. S. Rajaratnam
Kishore Mahbubani writes a letter to his teacher, the Singaporean statesman S. Rajaratnam.
Politics
Colm Tóibín
Between Laughter and Despair
Colm Tóibín on Europe, the powerlessness of the European institutions and what it means to be European.
Culture
Ágnes Heller
The Human Soul in All Its Moods
Heller on what great works she would have her students read, see and listen to in her ideal school curriculum.
History
Adam Zamoyski
A Letter to My Teacher
Zamoyski writes to his history teacher, who awakened in him ‘a fascination with objects which could help one penetrate the past.’
Politics
Nelofer Pazira
Of Gods and Men
‘Any future revolution in the Arab-Muslim world must be humanist in nature.’
Culture
George Steiner
Why didn’t music say no?
Culture, Literature
David Steiner
Arcadia Regained
Music
George Steiner
Tritones
In memoriam Béla Tarr (1955-2026)
On the 6th of January 2026, the legendary Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr passed away at the age of seventy. Béla Tarr is recognized worldwide as one of the most influential and important filmmakers of the past decades. In his slow, dark black-and-white films he thematized, in his own words, 'the unbearable weight of existence.'