In the western world, we fear missing out more than we do excess. Living life to the full means filling it as much as possible, and so spaces are hard to tolerate. The radically counter-cultural view is that it is better to have too little than too much.
ReadIn the latest microphilosophy podcast I talk to the author of The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, philosopher of Science Alex Rosenberg, about what science has to tell us about how we should live. We’re also joined by Samir Okasha, author of Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction. The discussion was recorded live at Foyles bookshop in association with the Bristol Festival of Ideas.
ReadThe kind of philanthropy most of us practise is little more than the sharing of leftovers, not something that requires us to give up anything we value.
ReadORGANISATION: NOUN OR VERB? I was interviewed for a piece in this new series by nef consulting, an arm of[…]
ReadIt has finally been accepted that we can’t function without values. (Indeed, the very project of avoiding moral judgments itself rests on the firm belief that they are wrong.) But the suppression of morality-talk has served another very good purpose: the language itself is being used differently, as if it needed time in retreat in order to purge itself of its puritanical associations. It left the stage muttering about people shagging each other and strode back on later lamenting how the privileged are screwing the masses. Look at how the uses of moral language have been pressed into service in recent weeks and you’ll find that they do not concern mere private behaviour but the point at which individual actions have consequences for wider society. Morality has recovered its political dimension.
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