Great Quotes
I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol. - Alexandre Dumas
BLM: BURNT OFFERINGS

In Leviticus, it is written: ‘You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.’ 1:6 ‘It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.’ 1:9 Sin offering: ‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt and the sin they committed becomes known, the assembly must bring a…

Read More

Sailing …..

Sailing in the Solent …what a joy! It’s been quite a while. I have done 2 Fastnets and one Caribbean 600 and many late nights on watch. Seadog. There is a marvellous sense of being in touch with primal nature – others call it the weather but also sea  wind and oneself. We were sailing along the Solent with  an overnight stay on the Isle of Wight. Sailing with my friends at London Corinthians Sailing Club There is our…

Read More

Joshua Glasgow: Confusing genocide and racism
glasgow philosophy

Racism is assumed in most Western philosophy to be a singular and widespread phenomena. However we should consider whether racism is more like a virus or bacteria. It can evolve and adapt to different environments. In addition some virus and bacteria mutate from virulent to innocuous and back again. Racism could be a family of human behaviours. While we identify the virulent strain as objectionable any suggestion that elements of it are widespread might suggest that the underlying behaviour…

Read More

Julian Baggini: Hume and the genteel racism of British philosophy

Baggini has written a piece in Prospect magazine ‘   Is the University of Edinburgh right to “cancel” David Hume?’ 15 Sep 2020. He is seeking to defend Hume from accusations of racism while accepting his ‘unfortunate’ statements. He writes: ‘Hume was both a product of his time and like people of every time, had his blind spots.’ This statement implies that Hume’s views were uncontroversial during his time. This is completely untrue. His views were seriously challenged and…

Read More

Fear and trembling in UK Philosophy departments – the case of Dr Liam Kofi Bright

It is with some hesitation that we address this issue and mention names. It does seem to be both important and implausible without naming names. With the insurgency of BLM  Dr Kofi Bright may be able  to find some cover.  On 8 November 2019 in London Dr Bright, assistant professor in philosophy at London school of Economics, gave a public lecture on ‘Why do scientists lie?’ for the Royal Institute of Philosophy. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNs1sumAT68&t=774s)  Only the formal lecture is presented…

Read More

Failure of US journalism

After the widespread diffusion of the video of the assault on George Floyd rioting broke out in US cities  calling for the arrest and charging of the police officers involved.  There was considerable expressed surprise that when the demands were met the riots escalated.  ‘The turmoil was on display a short distance from the White House, where President Trump had called earlier in the day for his supporters to rally. Instead, hundreds of protesters mobilized on the streets of…

Read More

President Trump to Hong Kong police: ‘start shooting!’

We are not among those who take a default position that President Trump is racist. We take him at his word until we cannot . In this case Trump has said on Twitter on 29 May 2020: “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you.” Clearly these statements are made with a concern for safety and the rule of law. We have all seen the images of violence and looting…

Read More

Coming collapse of US cultural dominance:

At the present time the world dominance of US culture seems uncontestable. However closer scrutiny would show that the world is a far more complex place and the apparent dominance can be less than it seems. First, we can begin with the humorous. I remember listening to an American in the 1980’s describe the coming world dominance of US culture as  inevitable and universal and as a proof and precursor he pointed to the ubiquity of the  ‘Walkman’. It…

Read More

An interesting question about the Cold War(s)
image of dominos falling

There is an interesting question that is seldom asked. After the collapse fo the Cold War there should have been a peace dividend, winding up of NATO and a reduction in armed conflict in the world. In fact armed expenditure by US has increased and wars have expanded. Conflict with China has been described as a ‘new’ cold war. However the obvious question is: if the consequences of the collapse of Soviet Union and end of ‘cold war’ were…

Read More

Western philosophy … MIA

Where were Western philosophers when the following questions were asked? Should we torture to save many lives? Which cricket/sports team should you support? One of the fundamental tasks of philosophy has been to identify the correct question. If the correct question is asked often the bias of the incorrect question is exposed. Norman Tebbit posed the ‘cricket test’ complaining that many immigrant communities still support their country of origin in sports against England. This is simply the wrong question….

Read More