Individualism and Absolute Values: the Fundamentals of a Free Society
Since antiquity, and particularly after Plato, philosophers have pondered on the question of the absolute values, of truth, beauty and goodness. Now, just as then,…
Articles by Don Trubshaw
The value of the self: three views on privacy in the digital age (part 2)
“All that is solid melts into air” (Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto) The most fundamental revolution and radical transformation of human nature and society…
Antagonistic Tribalism: the cement of political extremism
The social psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has achieved a certain internet notoriety recently, through his lectures on the analysis of cultural myths and stories and,…
Playing the game: sport and virtue
As I write this, England will or will not be on the way to the finals of the World Cup, and that matter, like the…
Zeno and the philosophical conundrum of pure reasoning
It was the pre-Socratic thinker Parmenides who first mooted the idea (as far as we know) in a document, only fragments of which survive in…
Three views on privacy in the digital age, part 1: the value of the self
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the…
The Just Society: Equality or Freedom?
In A Theory of Justice John Rawls conducted a famous thought experiment. He asked, if we were to imagine, behind a ‘veil of ignorance’, being…
Respect, rights and freedoms in an era of identity activism
The British actor Ben Kingsley, probably most famous for his eponymous role in the film Ghandi, has, since being knighted in the 2001 honours list,…
The coming struggle: individualism versus the bureaucratic state
Introduction Modernity has been characterised not only by the great benefits brought by the increase in scientific knowledge and the technologies that have flowed…
National sovereignty considered as a rule-based game
The Cambridge dictionary defines sovereignty as “The power of a country to govern itself”. As opposed to what? the power of a country not…