I like Alain De Botton’s energy and chutzpah, but I also think ideas are better when they’re challenged and thinkers are prodded to consider the possible holes in their thinking. So here is what I think is a serious hole which De Botton needs to consider in his ‘religion for atheists’. At the moment, it Read more…
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Friday, 9 December 2011
I feel like a polar bear who wakes up to discover the piece of ice they went to sleep on has broken free of the mainland and floated far out into the sea. Or is that disappearing iceberg the EU, and we’re the ones on solid ground? The Economist put it well: “We journalists are Read more…
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Everyone, particularly Sam Harris, is very excited about creating a new science of well-being. Surely, Sam Harris argues in his new book, science can tell us facts about what actions and policies lead to human flourishing, and what lead to suffering? Science allows us to measure people’s well-being levels. We can scan their brains, we Read more…
Sunday, 22 February 2009
There are probably around 200 people in the world who describe themselves as Stoics, including me. Why choose to follow such an obscure and minority philosophy? Is it an act of willful perversity, like supporting Norwich FC? If you are a Westerner, and are spiritually inclined, you have a number of options before you. Christianity Read more…
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
What is it about you that makes you worthwhile? Your wit? Your beauty? Your kindness? Your friends or family? Your status? Your work? Your wealth? Your fame? We all of us, every day, tend to make assessments of our self-worth, our value, our acceptability. When something good happens to us, we get a little release Read more…