Reality imitates fiction. Though fictional tales caution against our excesses, warnings are ignored. The artificial attempt to recreate life in a laboratory is still going on; the current obsession is abiogenesis. Continue reading Frankenstein science: Origin of Life research
Why is the Wealth of nations so important? Adam Smith and classical economics (2010) Continue reading Why is the Wealth of Nations so important? Adam Smith and classical economics
Noam Chomsky is an activist and an emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Continue reading Noam Chomsky: The history and hypocrisy of the war on terror
by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi The realization that human activity is altering the earth’s climate assigns to human beings the gravest moral responsibility we have ever faced. It puts the destiny of the planet squarely in our own hands just at … Continue reading Taking notes 49: Climate change: a moral call to social transformation
by Jeff Shantz Sabotage! the word conjures images of damage and destruction. In his chapter “On the Nature and Uses of Sabotage,” anarchic sociologist Thorstein Veblen notes that the sinister meaning attributed to sabotage, which predominates American usage, appears and … Continue reading Taking notes 46: Reflections on sabotage: theirs and ours
by Sanjay Perera The road to hell is paved with good intentions. — An aphorism[1] Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them. This may seem an extraordinary claim, but it … Continue reading The intentional road to hell
by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi At the beginning of a new year it is customary for us to express our hopes for peace in the year ahead and to wish each other peace. But to actually achieve peace is by no means … Continue reading Taking notes 44: Participatory spirituality: fostering peace, Inside and Out
by Wolfgang Streeck There is a widespread sense today that capitalism is in critical condition, more so than at any time since the end of the Second World War.[1] Looking back, the crash of 2008 was only the latest in … Continue reading How will capitalism end?
by Sanjay Perera Then I knew that the sign I had asked for was not a little thing, not a passing nod of recognition and a phrase came back to me from my childhood of the veil of the temple … Continue reading Making moral philosophy relevant again: the rent across the ‘veil of ignorance’
by Leon Trotsky Moral effluvia During an epoch of triumphant reaction, Messrs. democrats, social-democrats, anarchists, and other representatives of the “left” camp begin to exude double their usual amount of moral effluvia, similar to persons who perspire doubly in fear. … Continue reading Their morals and ours
Philosophers for Change 