The other night my wife and I encountered a taxi driver who was also a philosopher. He wasn’t an Uber driver, but one of the conventional taxi drivers who is probably slowly going out of business. ( I refuse to have any part in deliberately making people more insecure than they already are). He told …
Professors Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and Scott Stern from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that that models of economic growth alone are incomplete and misleading. They have developed a Social Progress index, ranking 133 countries in three main categories, indepentently from GDP: Basic Human Needs (food, water, shelter and safety), Foundations of …
“The main obstacles to happiness are, firstly, desire for recognition, rank, wealth, power and sex. Second is fear of death. Third is the fear of hell fire threatened by organised religion.” Michel de Montaigne (1533—1592). Montaigne was a fascinating man. He espoused most of the views of Epicurus and did not like organised religion, but …
Some while ago a young lady wrote to this blog with a very open and honest request for advice about making friends. She was clearly having a problem finding, and keeping. a friend of the opposite sex. Since this is a constant theme throughout the generations I thought I would repeat my reply to her: …
We’re far too polite in this country. We talk of immigrants having a duty to integrate into society, for instance, but are too embarrassed to insist that they actually learn English, the essential prerequisite of integration. Instead, our public bodies go out of their way to provide expensive translation services. Last year, Crawley Borough Council …
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