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 the writings of later philosophers,1 that all movement and development is illusory. His disciple Zeno developed this insight through a series of subtle paradoxes, over which philosophers and logicians have… Continue reading Zeno and the philosophical conundrum of pure reasoning
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
Has the postmodern revolution gone full circle?
Happily, the inconsistency and incoherence of the postmodernist perspective is increasingly being challenged by a new generation of thinkers from across the political spectrum. For example Ken Wilber in his Trump and a Post-Truth World notes how postmodernism has played itself out and in attempting to create a new basis for determining truth has ultimately undermined it.
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 born into a world in a position somewhere on the scale of unalloyed privilege and crushing poverty, what would be the type of social system we would advocate. Rawls assumed… Continue reading The Just Society: Equality or Freedom?
Lexicon for the Moral Maze
Do you find yourself confused or bewildered by what passes for moral debate in the social milieu these days? Asking yourself why so many people seem to be so hot under the collar about things that would have passed as normal behaviour only a few years ago? Don’t worry. It’s a common problem people have… Continue reading Lexicon for the Moral Maze
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 Unintended Consequences of Law
It is a fact little known that the origins of the title of John Steinbeck’s famous novel “Of Mice and Men” was an ode “To a Mouse” by Scots poet Robert Burns a century and a half earlier. The reference is specifically to the following passage from the end of the penultimate stanza: The best laid… Continue reading The Unintended Consequences of Law
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 from it, such as increasing wealth and convenience, improvements in health and well-being, and access to enormous amounts of information by ordinary citizens, but also by the increased possibilities for… Continue reading The coming struggle: individualism versus the bureaucratic state
Who Will Mind the Minders?
We often, particularly around this time each year, pride ourselves here in the UK on our having given birth to modern democracy in the context of the nation state and have even earned the epithet “Mother of Parliaments.” But that does not mean that our parliamentary system has not on occasions been rocked by scandals… Continue reading Who Will Mind the Minders?
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 to govern itself? Defined in this way, the idea of sovereignty is a tautology; power, nationhood and government are effectively a closed loop. This historical weight of sovereignty is the… Continue reading National sovereignty considered as a rule-based game