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 fate of Schrödinger’s cat, will have been settled by the time this article is posted. Although I played (badly) as a boy, I have assiduously avoided following football as it… Continue reading Playing the game: sport and virtue
Category: Culture
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 process of setting man free from men. (Ayn Rand) In this essay I want to consider three interconnected ways in which we can view privacy: its meaning in organic society;… Continue reading Three views on privacy in the digital age, part 1: the value of the self
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, apparently insisted on being referred to as ‘Sir Ben Kingsley’. This is his right and he is, from all accounts, quite offended if the honorific is overlooked. Not all recipients… Continue reading Respect, rights and freedoms in an era of identity activism
The Limits of Tolerance
Attacks like the one we saw in the heart of London last week always set in motion a series of political spasms on the right and the left, the right decrying the lack of calling a spade a spade in the establishment media, in that the danger is posed not just by Islamist terrorism, or… Continue reading The Limits of Tolerance
Collective Memory
Memory is not a passive depository of facts, but an active process of creation of meanings. (Alessandro Portelli) 1 The relationship of memory to reality is something that we have all, at one time or another, had to face, not just the fact that our memory is unreliable, but that even our most cherished… Continue reading Collective Memory
A Paean to Serendipity
One of the fascinations of languages are that on occasions they throw up words that are so connected with the spirit of the culture that they defy both translation and even definition. ‘Serendipity’ is a word imbued with something peculiarly English, which is largely untranslatable and indefinable. It is as if the meaning were conveyed… Continue reading A Paean to Serendipity
Self-transcendence and the multiplicity of value-worlds in the evolution of modernity
Abstract The dizzying rate of change today is bringing a focus on fundamental values that is bypassing the traditional concerns of epistemology within philosophy and the historical and political issue of the religious/secular divide. This focus points to an emerging view of social evolution driven by a transcendent view of individual identity. The nature of… Continue reading Self-transcendence and the multiplicity of value-worlds in the evolution of modernity
The Fragility of History: Historical Truth between Interpretation and Iconoclasm
It would not surely be too outrageous to claim that history is nothing but the artefacts of the past. The actors of the past have disappeared from history; of their thoughts, dreams, loves and lives nothing remains but whatever is recorded in their bones, their books, pictures and possessions, which become the future texts of… Continue reading The Fragility of History: Historical Truth between Interpretation and Iconoclasm