Tamas Pataki

Tamas Pataki is honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne (School of Historical and Philosophical Studies) and honorary fellow of Deakin University. He studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne and psychoanalysis at University College, London University. He has been a lecturer in philosophy at RMIT, the University of Tasmania, and the University of Melbourne. He co-edited, with Michael Levine, Racism in Mind (2004) and is the author of Against Religion (2007), numerous journal articles and book chapters on the philosophy of mind, and many popular pieces and reviews.

Tamas Pataki reviews 'My Israel Question' by Antony Loewenstein

October 2006, no. 285 • 01 October 2006

When I started reading My Israel Question, the Israel Defence Force Chief of Staff had just vowed to ‘turn back the clock in Lebanon by twenty years’; and the demolition was underway. Beirut’s airport, major roads, bridges, power generation facilities and other civilian infrastructure had been bombed, and villages and densely populated suburbs were being reduced to rubble. In a report some w ... (read more)

'Against Religion' by Tamas Pataki

February 2006, no. 278 • 01 February 2006

Shortly before the federal elections of October 2004, Treasurer Peter Costello delivered an address entitled ‘The Moral Decay of Australia’ to 16,000 members of the Assemblies of God at the Sydney Hillsong Church. For his main theme, Costello invoked ‘the Judeo-Christian-Western tradition’, the core of which, according to him, was the Ten Commandments. He lamented that few people could rec ... (read more)

Tamas Pataki reviews 'The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now' edited by George Levine

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337 • 24 November 2011

The war of religion currently being fought with fusillades of paperbacks and feuilletons has taken a new turn. It started with an ambuscade by the ‘new’ atheists – also known as ‘militant’ or ‘Darwinian’ atheists – Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the ubiquitous Christopher Hitchens (may he remain so). They were quickly joined by many sympathisers sharing the belief that peace, sec ... (read more)