Since Adam Smith the prevailing view in economics has been that the free market operates through a principle of rational self-interest. Much as Darwin later identified the underlying mechanism for the variety and dynamism of nature operating at the individual level, so Smith atomised the creation of wealth to the individual’s self-interest: “It is… Continue reading Adam Smith and the Rationality of Self-Interest
Category: Morality
Virtuous Thinking?
Are we as human beings all different from one another, or are we not rather all basically the same? And do you feel you are a better person for the way you answered the previous question? If your answer to the second question was not a self-satisfied “well, yes”, then I commend you for your… Continue reading Virtuous Thinking?
Chance and Necessity in Populist Revolution
May you live in interesting times (Confucian curse) Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites (Edmund Burke) A scholar of impeccable academic credentials once suggested to me that revolutions are spaced about the average lifespan of a human apart, about 70 years.… Continue reading Chance and Necessity in Populist Revolution
The Politics of Division
Is the new populist style of politics emerging on both sides of the Atlantic a cause or a symptom of the increasing sense of division in society? Surveying the “Hillary for PA” Twitter feed last week as I have been known to do (well, on at least one previous occasion), I found an interesting exchange… Continue reading The Politics of Division
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 Moral Basis of the European Project?
Colin Turfus asks if the European Union is or can ever be faithful to its own founding principles. The Two Pillars For over half a century now a project has been under way to transform European society from what it was at the mid-point of the 20th century, a disparate collection of peoples possessed of… Continue reading The Moral Basis of the European Project?
Altruism and the Moral Matrix
What are the origins of altruistic behaviour in human society? One of the greatest debates in philosophy and the social sciences over the last few centuries has been the origins of altruistic behaviour in human beings. This issue can be approached from many perspectives, with the result that polarly opposed opinions not infrequently find themselves… Continue reading Altruism and the Moral Matrix