‘Philosophy’ is the historic name for the widest mode of seriously practised rational discourse about the nature of the physical world, the meaning of mathematics, the conditions for tolerable social wellbeing, and comfortable relationships between people (ethics). But today all these discourses are wilting badly, even visibly disintegrating, because of […]

Present the morale of the UK is in a dangerous, parlous place.  There is a ranging epidemic of online fraud,  the justice system is, in effect, broken, shoplifting is being virtually ignored, and gut faith in the capability of fairminded democratic ruling governance is on the floor.  Education, which ought […]

Philosophy in Academia is currently in a dismal, forlorn state. Its methodology has become narrowly scholastic, and there are virtually no big fascinating ideas which are circulating, or enthusing a “school” of academic ideologues, or at least none which count as ‘philosophy’ by the best historic standards. Some topics which […]

We currently have an incumbent in the White House who has somehow managed to bedazzle a body of hand-picked officials and thereby acquired an astonishing degree of “apparent authority”. His word is now being fully accepted in the US governmental network as “actionable” and “legitimate”. A charmed circle of Yes-men […]

It is March 2025 and the Royal Institute of Philosophy is about to celebrate its 100 years of existence  … with a reception in the Middle Temple. This can be a prompt… to look at the state of philosophy at the present time. Philosophy is obviously the most general area […]

There are some potentially dangerous trends at present which include treating AI as a prime source of sound advice… which could —if left unchecked— potentially do a lot of damage. Those who have their ears to the ground say that 75% of sixth-form essays written in UK private schools are […]

There are potentially dangerous trends abroad which might lead to the abandonment of democracy in politics —unless the leadership of the genuine democracies wake up and start furiously retrenching their fragile estate. How could this happen?  Well, the whole influential class seem to be quite “blind” to the damage a […]

What do you do, when a Pied Piper who has established a charismatic hold over a bewildered majority, starts to lead this majority towards a state which can only end (in the long run) in cultural meltdown?  Or to put it in a different way:  What do you do when […]

It is widely assumed that religion is needed to justify a Moral Code which comes with bite, i.e. a Moral Code which prescribes and expects rigorous observation.  But this sequence can be reversed, by realising that religion was from the beginning based on airy generalised thinking about how the vast, […]

This blog puts the case for a major BOWT (“Burden of Work Taxonomy”) research project which might take years to come to completion. It is being offered as the “missing link” which is needed to achieve social justice. Probably the major cause of social disaffection in today’s society is the application […]