There are lots of ways to answer the question, ‘what is the meaning of life’, but I’ll cut to the chase: there isn’t one. At least, that’s if you take the question from the perspective of ‘what life means’. Unsurprisingly, I found the answer to that not in a philosophy Read more…
In 1893, Thomas Henry Huxley gave the second ever Romanes Lecture at Oxford University. It was entitled ‘Evolution & Ethics’. In this lecture, delivered in some of the finest of 19th century prose, Huxley presented one of the most clear rebukes given then and since against the coarse injection of Read more…
Eugenics has a bad rap. All that talk of selective breeding (or sterilising) of people in order to improve the human stock or purify races is terribly distasteful today – and for good reason. However, I wonder if we’re already bringing a kind of eugenics back with modern day genetic Read more…
“We are all players in the game of life, with divergent aims and aspirations that make conflict inevitable. In a healthy society, a balance between all these differing aims and aspirations is achieved so that the benefits of cooperation are not entirely lost in internecine strife. Game theorists call such Read more…
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics The philosophical study of being and knowing. wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn The branch of philosophy that studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything Read more…
It might seem a facetious question to ask: what’s so special about morality? But it’s a question I think worth asking in a serious way before embarking on any in-depth discussion of the nature of morality. And one that I don’t think is asked seriously often enough. Plenty of discussions Read more…
It’s a popular notion: that morality is somehow universal. If murder is wrong, then it’s wrong for everyone. Or more pointedly, if murder is wrong, then regardless of what I might think on the matter, it’s wrong for me. There certainly seems to be something about morality that sets it Read more…
Let’s say there’s no such thing as intrinsic value. (I won’t present an argument to this effect here, although many others have done so.) As a result, let’s say instead of there being intrinsic values, we project values upon the world. (Again, I won’t present an argument for this here, Read more…
It’s time to build a positive framework that can serve the role that religion has played in our lives for millennia, yet one that is not steeped in superstition, that is rational and is capable of handling the tremendous challenges we are sure to face in the future. Challenges that any belief system based on myth and fantasy won’t be suited to face.
Continuing in the spirit of recent helpful stereotyping efforts, I contribute this: Socrates People who didn’t study philosophy. Plato People who did study philosophy, but only as an elective. Aristotle People who know they should tidy their room, but never do. Democritus People who don’t know who Leucippus is. Leucippus Read more…