"We need a state that rewards us for cooperating and punishes us for cheating and stealing. At the same time we must ensure that the state is punished when it acts against the common good. Human welfare …is guaranteed only by mutual scrutiny and regulation…..Unless taxpayers’ money and public services are available to repair the …
“The healthy man doesn’t torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers”. (Carl Jung, quoted in The Guardian). This is a crucial question of morality. There is no possible doubt in my mind that Epicurus, were he alive today, would abhor torture, and probably did in ancient Athens, too. That torture …
We seek to bring the spirit of Epicurus and Epicurean philosophy alive in pragmatic discussion. This is not about food (although Epicureans like that, too), and it is not arguing some set-in-stone ideology, but is trying to imagine what the Greek philosopher might make of current affairs and issues were he alive today. Of course, …
Every time there is a moral panic, whether Macarthyism, Americans of Japanese origin being incarcerated in the Second World War, or now, when the Government has arguably inflated the risks and dangers of terrorism and crafted an atmosphere of fear, politicians scurry to reduce civil liberties. The Survey Research Institute of Cornell University has found …
Non-theists do not believe in a supreme being, particularly not an all-seeing one that organises the minutiae of life comfortably for believers. A recent poll showed that over 50% of Americans would refuse to vote for a Presidential candidate who was a non-theist. Only one member of the current Congress is a non-theist, and he …
