Dame Margaret Thatcher famously once asserted that there is no such thing as society. It has never been entirely clear what she meant by that claim. But what was made clear was that ‘society’ at the time was of the opinion that she was wrong; and that it was very angry with her for suggesting… Continue reading Is It True that “There Is No Such Thing as Society”?
Tag: society
The Imperfect Paradise: Narratives of Ordinary Life and the Incursion of Evil
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” (Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind, 1977) The problem of evil is one of the oldest problems in human thought. Every religion and many philosophical systems have contended with its nature and… Continue reading The Imperfect Paradise: Narratives of Ordinary Life and the Incursion of Evil
Lexicon for the Lockdown
Advisor – 1. Someone to give you advice from behind a plexiglass screen; 2. also, the type of facial covering that make you look like a bottled head. Antibacterial – a treatment for the complaint known as skin. Bugle smudger (see Mask) – The facial equivalent of the budgie smuggler; a device to render the… Continue reading Lexicon for the Lockdown
What actually is ‘Community’?
Almost no pundit, politician or purveyor of good causes can today make their case without extolling its benefits for ‘the community’ or miscellaneous ‘communities’. The importance of community has become a touchstone of contemporary thinking, on both the political left and the right. It might be thought that what socialists and conservatives mean by community… Continue reading What actually is ‘Community’?
The Soul of the World: Teilhard de Chardin’s Evolutionary Pantheism and its Challenge to Secular Humanism
Despite the obvious attractions of secular humanism, particularly in freeing individuals from conformity to religious doctrines unsupported by science, and by transcending religious particularism and exclusivity by focusing on the universality of the human experience, there are several problems with it. One is, at a fundamental philosophical level, there is no more evidence (there might… Continue reading The Soul of the World: Teilhard de Chardin’s Evolutionary Pantheism and its Challenge to Secular Humanism
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, there have been advocates of their status as real, as well as sceptics. The twentieth century was mostly a sceptical period, although I predict a revival of interest presently, given… Continue reading Individualism and Absolute Values: the Fundamentals of a Free Society
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