Is there any real distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ pleasures?
Does it matter whether our pleasures are spiritual or carnal, intellectual or stupid? Or are all pleasures pretty much the same?
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Tag: Ethics
Is the Church of England dancing with the devil?
The Church of England has said “we take the view that it is most effective to be in the room with these companies seeking change as a shareholder.” Is this moral sophistication or mere self-serving sophistry?
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Rituals of grief help us all
Communal commemorations may take arbitrary or even baffling forms, but they have an important role to play in civic life.
ReadHume the humane
Hume believed we were nothing more or less than human: that’s why he’s the amiable, modest, generous philosopher we need now.
ReadWant the truth about alcohol?
Health advice too often follows the principle of the noble lie. Rather than being told the plain truth, we are told what the authorities believe will lead us to behave properly, when “properly” means not just in the way that is most prudent for ourselves, but what is seen to be morally appropriate. When the best current scientific evidence meets moralising paternalism, it is truth that starts to bend.
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