If a man says that there is no such a thing as truth, you should take him at his word and not believe him. (Roger Scruton) In classical times there were considered to be three absolute values: truth, beauty and goodness, which were considered to be rooted in the unbroken order of things, the… Continue reading Reflections on the Nature of Truth in a Post-Relativist Age
Alternative facts about a recent football match
A short piece from our sports sketch writer. The fixture last week between Liverpool and Tottenham was much looked forward to by both sides as a clash between the Titans of the north and the south. The risk is always high, particularly post-Brexit, when sporting events seek to span the cultural divide which nowadays exists between the… Continue reading Alternative facts about a recent football match
Kant and Humbug
It is perhaps no surprise that the country which brought us Kant and the categorical imperative has also given rise to the word “Gutmensch” as a term of disparagement for what English speakers tend to refer to as do-gooders, although a more accurate translation of the German would be “good thinkers.” Kant sought in his philosophy… Continue reading Kant and Humbug
Adam Smith and the Rationality of Self-Interest
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
In Defence of the Open Society against its Enemies
Some have declared that 2016 was the year democracy died. This is nonsense of course and represents nothing more than those persons peeved sense of entitlement based on the firm conviction of the rightness of their own political persuasion, a persuasion disavowed at the ballot box. If this is the case, democracy may not have… Continue reading In Defence of the Open Society against its Enemies
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?
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
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
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