Ethical concerns over ‘playing God’
There is nothing new in “playing God”, it’s just that we’re getting better at it.
ReadTag: Politics & society
Must we be cruel to be kind?
We should always try to avoid reducing individual human beings to impersonal units of welfare, a dehumanisation which is utilitarianism at its worst. One way of doing this is simply to ask: if it were our lives or interests that were being sacrificed, should we accept it, however reluctantly?
ReadBeing Certain
Video of debate I took part in at How The Light Gets IN 2015, with Andrew Bowie, Edwina Currie and host Richard Coles.
ReadHow Trump and Sanders Parallel Populism in Europe
A balancing act needs to be pulled off, acknowledging what populism identifies correctly as deep problems in our politics while resisting the often conspiratorial details and simplistic, unworkable solutions. This requires neither dismissing the populists out of hand nor granting too much to them. Most of all, it requires making the case that society can only hold together and make progress if it adopts a more moderate, consensual, boring, mainstream kind of politics.
ReadThe myth of a winning personality
Before we tell people that they should cultivate a winning personality, we have to demonstrate to them that winning is more than just a distant possibility.
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