Do we need nature?
Getting close to nature is therefore not a simple matter of removing as much of the human touch as possible. It’s not the quantity of our intervention that counts, but the quality.
ReadTag: Ethics
Should we be afraid of weakness?
There is a poetic truth in Nietzsche’s final collapse into syphilitic madness. In tears, he flung his arms around a horse he had seen being flogged, both man and beast enduring suffering neither could overcome. In that moment, he showed that we can love the weak without them or us loving their weakness.
ReadPhilosophy v Science
Philosopher Julian Baggini fears that, as we learn more and more about the universe, scientists are becoming increasingly determined to stamp their mark on other disciplines. Here, he challenges theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss over ‘mission creep’ among his peers
ReadAm I a failure?
Our culture often seems determined to abolish failure, not by improving the way we do things but simply by getting better at finding reasons to see defeats as victories. All manner of things that used to be classified as failures are now recast as something else: an E is a low pass grade; a business bankruptcy an invaluable learning opportunity. Our motto has become, “If at first you don’t succeed, try to pretend you have.” So, paradoxically, we have become both intolerant and too tolerant of failure, accepting its manifestations by refusing to acknowledge it for what it is.
ReadWhy have we fallen out of love with organic food?
The question I wanted to chew over with the chief executive of the Soil Association, Helen Browning, is whether “organic” as we have known it has had its day. For all the good the movement has done in challenging the most egregious practices of modern industrial farming, take any key issue on food and farming today and you will find that it’s never simply a case of conventional bad, organics good, or even better.
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