Ethics – Page 93 – Julian Baggini

Huhne case highlights the end of privacy

February 9, 2013 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays

The social networking genie is out of the bottle and it is far too mischievous to be tamed. Discretion was hard enough to maintain when it could count on the support of social mores. Now that honesty, openness and sharing are the supreme values, it stands no chance. There is no turning the clock back to the days when the four walls of home contained more secrets than anyone outside could imagine. With denial and cover-up no longer an option, we are going to have to become more forgiving of others and of ourselves.

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Are we all doing our best?

February 6, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

An Olympiad of the least plausible claims ever made by philosophers would be a very busy competition indeed. One of the favourites for a podium place, however, would have to be Plato’s argument that no one knowingly chooses to do wrong. To do wrong is to err, and no one errs willingly. We are all only doing our best.

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Can we have too much self-esteem?

February 6, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

What I think many religions have got right is that we are, in a sense, terminally inadequate. Even the best fall short, which is why there is a whole industry devoted to knocking so-called saints off their pedestals. And it is important that we recognise this: it is impossible to do better if you are under the illusion you’re already the best.

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Is silence golden?

January 26, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

Is Wittgenstein’s famous aphorism, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”, a profound truth? Or is it a banal truism, along the lines of “That which you cannot move, you must leave where it is”? It may sound platitudinous, but if you think about what exactly lies beyond the limits of language, matters soon become much more opaque.

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Work, rest and pray

January 12, 2013 Julian Baggini Articles & Essays, Best of

Organised religion has lost its central place in most European countries, but it has not necessarily been replaced by atheism. The confused majority is “spiritual but not religious”, hungry for alternatives to the perceived materialism of modern life. “The more we’re distracted by stuff,” suggests Father Stephen, “the more we’re also attracted by what we’re missing.” We suspected that there might be aspects of monastic life that those who share this yearning can learn from, without having to take on board its religious commitments and beliefs…

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