Thomas More Institute

Category Archives: Culture

Published on
18 November 2013

The Excessive Simplicity of Legal Positivism and of Multiculturalism

Posted in Conscience, Culture, Human Life, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Virtue

‘In any legal system, whether a given norm is legally valid, and hence whether it forms part of the law of that system, depends on its sources, not its merits.’This working definition of ‘legal positivism’ has a certain notoriety, even while it provokes disagreement. This legal tradition is popularly understood, and with some rationale, to […]

Published on
4 November 2013

Why is the Internet So Loud?

Posted in Culture, Ethics Online

The composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle, after being presented with an Ivor Novello award for classical music, asked the assembled song-writers and pop performers, ‘Why is your music so effing loud?’. Posterity does not record what answer, if any, may have been given on the night, but there may in fact be a good, if subtle, […]

Published on
28 October 2013

What Good is Religion in Public Life?

Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Conscience, Culture, Legal Affairs, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary

‘We don’t do God’ said Alastair Campbell. In an increasingly secularised world the idea that religion might play any constructive role in public life is ever more considered a relic of the past. Religious institutions are considered at best well-meaning repositories of old thoughts in beautiful buildings the like of which we shall simply not […]

Published on
9 October 2013

Bureaucracy, Parental Abuse and Conscience

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Human Life, Human Rights, Morality in Public

In the aftermath of horrible deaths at parental hands of Baby P., Daniel Pelka, Hamzah Khan and Keanu Williams, questions are naturally being asked as to what more might have been done by way of prevention. Unsurprisingly, the parents of these poor boys have been sentenced to prison. On paper perhaps, and technically, the local […]

Published on
1 July 2013

PRISM and the Long View of Modern Secularism

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Public Policy, Religion, Social Commentary, Virtue

In order to maintain public order secularism in our time relies on well- established delineation of ‘public’ and ‘private’ realms. While attempting to play down divisions between social groups, secularism reinforces a distinction between public conduct and private life. In this way a moderate secularism can reduce public conflict by emphasising those aspects of public […]

Published on
26 June 2013

Whistleblowers, Democracy and Authority

Posted in Big Society, British Politics, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Moral Philosophy

You wait months for a whistleblower to say something genuinely newsworthy and then two come along in quick succession: Edward Snowden, a former NSA worker who let the world know about PRISM; and Peter Francis, a former police officer who reports that he was ordered to find out compromising information on family and friends of […]