RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN CENTRAL AMERICA Mike Phipps A highly detailed account of the repressive character of many governments in Central America, a region described as “the most violent on the planet.” Emphasis is placed on the role of successive U.S. governments in training, funding and arming these repressive forces. The…
THE COMMON INTEREST: THEN AND NOW Bernard Burgoyne Focussing on the inter-related work of J.S. Mill, Freud and Grote, the author argues that beneficial social change and scientific progress arise from the challenging of existing opinion, and a subsequent shift in outlook. The process of challenging is called negative dialectics,…
‘THE UNHOLY MRS KNIGHT’AT THE BBC: SECULAR HUMANISM AND THE THREAT TO THE ‘CHRISTIAN NATION’, c.1945-1960 Callum Brown Margaret Knight’s BBC radio broadcasts, given in 1955 and entitled ‘Morality Without Religion’, were a catalyst in the process by which Christian culture lost the dominance which it had, at an official level, previously…
RAWLS’ CONTRACTUALISM v. BENTHAM’S UTILITARIANISM Sam Fremantle John Rawls’s 1971 book “A Theory of Justice” is widely regarded as having undermined the traditional predominance of utilitarianism in discourse on political justice. But this view is mistaken. Rawls’s doctrine of contractualism argues that a just society rests, not on benevolence or…
THE MYTHS OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE Kenan Malik An argument of strong scholarly and historical character, that the origins and underpinnings of Western culture are manifold: owing a good deal to Greek and Judaic thought, and indebted to Muslim culture in a number of ways. As regards the modern values of…
THE INFLUENCE OF QUAKER PERSECUTION ON PAINE Sybil Oldfield Partly from his father, who was a Quaker, Paine was deeply influenced by the historical tradition of Quaker protest against social injustice, corruption, poverty and class-dominance. As a result, he opposed slavery, supported both the American and French Revolutions, and advocated,…
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE HUMANIST LIBRARY Cathy Broad MORAL THEORY FOR NATURALISTS Catherine Wilson Moral practices are viewed from a naturalistic and evolutionary perspective, which includes looking at the sub-human as well as the human. Generally, growth in moral outlook is growth in concern for, and empathy with, other people:…
A MODERN DAY CREATION STORY John Rawles This presents a materialistic view of the universe and its origins. ‘Matter’ is described as something active and dynamic; and, when in system-form, capable of producing emergent properties, such as (in animal brains) consciousness. ‘Life’ is defined as a state of matter: when…
‘THE POET OF NATURE’: GEORGE SANTAYANA ON LUCRETIUS AS A PHILOSOPHICAL POET Timothy J. Madigan Santayana, chiefly in his book ‘Three Philosophical Poets,’ hailed Lucretius as the poetic spokesman for the naturalistic/materialistic viewpoint to which he himself subscribed. Lucretius located human beings firmly within a naturalistic framework, and achieved the rare…
SOUL DUST: THE MAGIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS Nicholas Humphrey The word ‘soul’ remains an appropriate one to describe the sense of mystery which comes from contemplating our uniqueness as individuals, and the complexity of our inner mental experience. Abstract by Tom Rubens. A CRITIQUE OF SOUL DUST Ian Buxton VIEWPOINTS T. Rubens,…
