At the Institute of Economic Affairs for a long time now we have tried to explore, as part of what we do, the moral underpinnings and the moral framework within which a market economy has to work. There is a feeling among those who work in the field of economics that the battle of ideas has been won in regard […]

Contention: Since the inception of a truly ‘mass media’ secular liberals have used it to advance their views. In contemporary Britain the media is the most powerful single influence on shaping the moral climate. In creating a ‘new morality’ traditional Christian morality has been undermined and untold harm has been done to individuals and to society at […]

Introduction The topic that I will be looking at this evening will be related to some of the concerns that Thomas More had. In fact, my objective this evening is quite modest as I am an economic geographer who has an interest in philosophical issues but I am certainly not a political philosopher. I came […]

Introduction For Richard Dawkins the truth needs to be told: ‘If this book [The God Delusion] works as I intend, religious people who open it will be atheists when they put it down’ (2006, p.5) So, Dawkins clearly believes that the truth needs to be communicated. Truthful knowledge ought to be sought and promoted. This […]

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Flanders & Swann. When I was young, one of the few records we had at home was a ‘45’ with four Flanders & Swann songs, including Too Many Cookers. This was a tongue-in-cheek lament for the over-complication of the traditional British kitchen by the introduction of […]

This is a large topic through which I am going to move with excessive speed. Essentially the problem of freedom is to do with the diversity of what we talk about in using the word ‘freedom’: that is, everything from the property of controlling our own actions when we think of freedom of will, to […]

First of all, my apologies for bringing two great minds together in less than an hour. I wonder what Lady Bracknell would have said. ‘To tackle one great mind in less than an hour could be considered ambitious; to tackle two seems like carelessness.’ Not wanting to disagree with Lady Bracknell, I should nonetheless declare […]

My aim tonight is to talk around some of the themes of this book, Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy. I shall not comment much on the chapters about consumerism, entrepreneurship and business, but those are very rich chapters. That on entrepreneurship by Fr. Anthony Percy from Australia is particularly so: there has been nothing quite […]