Published on
20 March 2013
Posted in Civil Liberties, Ethics in the Media, Freedom, Liberty, Public Policy
The Royal Charter being set up in the wake of the Leveson Report marks an end to a period of 300 years in which government did not regulate the press. It is unprecedented in this country’s democratic history and should therefore be approached with great care. One does not have to look far to find […]
Published on
29 October 2012
Posted in Culture, Freedom, Human Life, Social Commentary
In a recent lecture at Davos Julian Savulescu argued that it is not beyond the reach of modern science to create human beings with considerably greater powers of intelligence, physical strength and even moral rectitude. It was possible, he suggested, to create a ‘super-human’, a person, or kind of person, capable of transcending ordinary biological […]
Published on
16 August 2012
‘Modernity’, wrote Hegel, ‘is the secularisation of religion’. In many ways this is true of twentieth-century Europe during which we saw one responsibility after another pass from churches into the hands of government. Chief among these was, of course, the Welfare State, but education and moral authority followed not far behind. The last-mentioned is most […]
Published on
30 January 2012
Posted in Culture, Education, Europe, Freedom, Human Rights, Moral Philosophy, Music & Art, Philosophy, Religion
From a guest blogger: What is it that St. Peter’s Basilica, Climate Change, the Euro Crisis and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy have in common? I shall not keep you guessing. All four demonstrate that humans are not only special, but also without doubt the most special of creatures on Planet Earth. Consider for a moment […]
Published on
15 September 2011
Posted in Africa, Freedom, Human Rights, Islam, Military Ethics, United States of America, World Affairs
The world has just marked with due solemnity and regret the tenth anniversary of terrible terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Much has been written in recent days analysing the legacy of the events to date. The most notable 9/11 outcome has perhaps been armed intervention in Afghanistan by NATO and […]
Published on
20 June 2011
Posted in Christianity, Ethics in the Media, Euthanasia, Freedom, Human Life, Liberty, Moral Philosophy
From a Guest Blogger: Terry Pratchett’s recent documentary Choosing to Die is rightly controversial. When such a prolific writer as Pratchett, suffering from Alzheimer’s, makes a television programme of such emotional intensity as this one, on such a delicate topic as suicide, it is difficult to know exactly how to respond. Having watched most of […]
Published on
27 May 2011
Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Freedom, Human Rights, Liberty, Virtue
From a guest blogger: ‘What shall we do to-morrow? What shall we ever do?’ – T. S. Eliot If a substance were proved to be edible, legal, and productive of no physical or mental effects beyond an extremely pleasurable but incapacitating intoxication, would it be reasonable to say that there were any moral problems in […]
Published on
25 May 2011
Posted in British Politics, Ethics in the Media, Freedom, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Virtue
If we were to be given £1 for every time we had heard the admonition not to ‘tell tales’ during our schooldays, there might be few people who would need to work for a living. Yet the recent furore over so-called ‘super-injunctions’ taken out by celebrities to prevent details of their private lives being revealed […]