I suggest looking at three ways of thinking prominent in non-western philosophies that might alert us to aspects of our own that have been squeezed too much into the background and could benefit from being given more attention. Once we do that, we can recalibrate, putting more emphasis on the values that have been neglected and less on those that have come to carry too much weight. If that helps us to a more compassionate, less adversarial politics, all the better.
Read
No one but a misery guts wants to stop people being happy, but the fundamental problem with well-being indices is that all the measures are quantitative, ranking how you feel on a one-to-10 scale, whereas the most important variations are qualitative.
Read
Everyone likes to think they are open-minded. However, even those of us that actively invite different ideas rarely allow them to set up home. In the past I found this depressing. Now, I’m not so down on our apparent resistance to change. In short, I’ve changed my mind about changing minds.
Read
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Monday I thought I would have a break from talking about my own ideas when I took part in a discussion about Nietzsche’s aphorisms. What i discovered was that, in fact, when talking about Nietzsche’s aphorisms, or anyone else’s, exploring what you think is the whole point.
Read
I took part in a live discussion of the results of the BBC Loneliness Experiment at the Wellcome Collection in London. It was presented by Claudia Hammond, with musician Jazz Morley, poet Daljit Nagra, and researchers Christina Victor and Pam Qualter.
Read