Peter Benson on why digital photos aren’t reliable records of anything. André Bazin (1918-58) was the greatest film critic of his generation. As Editor of the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma he encouraged young writers such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer, who would later become film-makers themselves, creating the French New Wave of […]
The Ontology of Photography: From Analogue To Digital Read More »
Peter Royle shows no vexation over Sartre’s crustacean fixation. Crabs? What have crabs to do with philosophy? It is well known that at a certain stage in his life Jean-Paul Sartre felt himself to be persecuted by lobsters, crayfish and other crustaceans, including crabs; and that crustaceans, especially crabs, figure prominently in his literature. But
Matthew Gindin thinks that the Stoics have useful advice for us right now. The Stoic philosophers, who flourished in the Graeco-Roman world between the third century BCE and the fourth century CE, were profoundly interested in the natural world, and considered science essential knowledge for a philosopher. It’s likely that a Stoic time traveller, transported
A Stoic Response To The Climate Crisis Read More »
Andy Owen explains what Aristotle was tolkien about. “Without friends no one would want to live, even if they had all other worldly things.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII In my early twenties a close friend committed suicide. He was a beautiful soul and I will always question myself as to what, as his friend,
Fellowship For Aristotle & Tolkien Read More »
Innes Crellin attacks the “Anglo-Saxon” approach to moral philosophy. Those who seek some meaning in the concept of ‘morality’ find it confused and distorted. What it means seems to vary from one authority to another. In the media and in popular usage, the word has assumed a rhetorical flavour that has disguised any real meaning
The Need for Authenticity Read More »
Peter Lloyd savages the “continental” approach to moral philosophy. “ I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken” Oliver Cromwell, 1650 One of the threats to world peace is from people who share Professor Innes Crellin’s view of the nature of moral values (“The anachronism of morality”, Philosophy
The Dangers of Moral Certainty Read More »
Anja Steinbauer says Don’t Trust the Ethicists (too much). Ethical issues are a messy business. Trying to get a firm grip on them is like holding a handful of sand and see it trickle through your fingers. Many philosophers love ethics. Equipped with their professional buckets and spades – virtues, maxims, systems and values –
Ethics versus Morality Read More »
Warwick Fox on an approach to the environment which is also a way of living. Deep ecology is one of about nine major approaches to our relationship with the world around us that have been mapped out by environmental philosophers in recent years. I’m not going to discuss all these approaches here, but it might
Deep Ecology & Virtue Ethics Read More »
Paul Gregory on How to End Packages and Bundling. A major practical problem with democracy is how opinion can be organised and measured so that something resembling a general will, or a majority, or a consensus, can be identified. How can one possibly establish all the relevant opinions and values people hold? How can we
Ramsey McNabb on knowing how other people feel. Tragically, Hector’s father is involved in a car accident and dies. Hector is devastated. An acquaintance, Anita, tells him that she knows just how he feels. Angered at her presumption, he responds, “No, you don’t know how I feel!” After all, how could she know how he
The Paradox of Empathy Read More »