Nina Power: ‘Outrage is a bad mode for politics’
Rural Wiltshire doesn’t offer much in the way of entertainment for children. “The world that existed to me,” Nina Power says, “was the books my parents owned and the music my dad played.” One song has...
View ArticleNo, you don’t have a right to happiness
After life and liberty, the US Declaration of Independence identifies “the pursuit of Happiness” as an “unalienable Right”. No nation, however, has been foolish enough to assert the right to possess,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Charles’s coronation could be a spiritual flop
Millions of us will soon be watching a coronation ceremony that purports to be largely unchanged for 1,000 years. It will radiate spiritual splendour and, to most, will seem timeless in a world of...
View ArticleGod, creator of the universe (they/them)
Take divinity. Mix with gender. Add pronouns. Stand well back. Wear safety goggles. The Church of England, worried that it might be going through a bit of a quiet period and sensing the need to stir...
View ArticleThe philosophical meaning of equality
It doesn’t take children long to notice that the world is unfair. Very smart adults, however, can spend a lifetime trying to work out what “fair” means without reaching a conclusion. In The Idea of...
View ArticleIs there a philosophical case for climate compensation?
As climate change accelerates, insisting that we’re all in it together glosses over the reality that some are up to their necks in it while others are barely getting their feet wet. The rhetoric of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Goethe and Schiller ushered in the romantic age
Reviewed here Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self by by Andrea Wulf (RRP: £25) Buy on Bookshop.org Prospect receives commission when you buy a book using this page....
View ArticleKieran Setiya: The modern self-help manifesto is intrinsically selfish
Kieran Setiya is fascinated by the various maladies inherent to the human condition. In his new book, Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, the British-born MIT professor takes us on...
View ArticlePhilosopher at large: Are markets amoral?
In 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, the American philosopher Michael Sandel was heralding the end of an era characterised by heady, reckless deregulation. He was referring to Thatcher and...
View ArticleThe philosophical necessity of long-term thinking
Reviewed here What We Owe the Future: A Million-Year View by William MacAskill (RRP: £20) Buy on Bookshop.org Prospect receives commission when you buy a book using this page. Thank you for supporting...
View ArticlePhilosopher-at-large: Can there ever be a rational basis for the hereditary...
For centuries, the European Enlightenment was supposed to be the beginning of the end for the continent’s monarchs. Yet while most have indeed gone, well into the 21st century the United Kingdom has...
View ArticlePhilosopher-at-large: Ukraine has a moral right to choose its own fate
As the war in Ukraine drags on, it seems likely there will be increasing pressure from some of Volodymyr Zelensky’s allies to sue for peace. There is bound to be a lot of debate about whether this is...
View ArticleShould we forgive Boris Johnson?
“Hasta la vista, baby” was a fitting phrase for Boris Johnson’s last goodbye to parliament. It’s not just that he has for decades systematically torn up every page of the rule book of statesmanship...
View ArticleAmbition and grit take some people to the top. What about the rest?
Why must politicians seek to legitimise themselves through tales of early hardship overcome by ambition and hard work? The recent Tory leadership election has provided an unexpected illustration. We...
View ArticleWhy the precautionary principle may require us to give rights to AI
Fifty-four years ago, the fear that switching off a machine could one day amount to murder was firmly implanted in the public imagination. In Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sole...
View ArticleSophie Grace Chappell: “Being transgender looked a lot more favourable in...
Eight years ago, Sophie Grace Chappell came out as the UK’s first trans philosopher. She has since been joined by Matthew Cull at Edinburgh and says “I know of other people who are bubbling under but...
View ArticleLouise Perry: “I start from feminist priors and end up with socially...
Louise Perry does not just question the orthodoxies of mainstream feminism in her new book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. She takes a sledgehammer to them. Her thesis goes something like...
View ArticleMichael Sandel: “There is a growing tendency for those on top to believe that...
The definite article in Michael Sandel’s two BBC radio series The Public Philosopher and The Global Philosopher speaks of the authority that he widely commands. Since delivering the 2009 BBC Reith...
View ArticleWhat philosophy can tell us about the right to abortion
The apparently imminent overturning of Roe v Wade has not come out of the blue. For years now, American conservatives have been challenging the landmark 1973 ruling that established a pregnant woman’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interview: Daniel Dennett—philosophy has a big role to play, “if only it will...
Philosopher Daniel Dennett, Co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Daniel Dennett, £25 “I am not engaging in a lot of the disputation that...
View Article
![[QLD, NSW, VIC] Samsung 65](http://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/31/978831l.jpg?h=8d64f0c6)
