Happiness and wellbeing markers for the state of a national economy have little to do with how a given individual feels. They are part of a complex history of happiness. How to pursue, experience or eschew it should give us pause, for what happiness means is far from self-evident. ‘Be happy!’ Mary Wollstonecraft exhorted her […]
The adversarial culture in philosophy does not serve the truth
we clearly risk our reputation much more when proposing an idea rather than criticising it. This systematically disadvantages proponents of (new) ideas. every argument is vulnerable to potential criticism. If this is correct, then mistakes or the options of finding them abound. By contrast, philosophical claims that will go unchallenged are extremely rare. This means […]
The Declaration of Our Interdependence For 2020 Vision
For two centuries, the American Declaration of Independence served as the model to grow democracy. Now our world has reached the limits of growth driven by the pursuit of individual rights at the expense of shared responsibilities. Faced with the threats of warming, weapons, waste, and the lopsided distribution of wealth, we must declare our interdependence. We […]
Impossible choices
Learning from his family, his animals and his work with tribal people, Gregory Bateson saw the creative potential of paradox ‘There are times, when I catch myself believing there is something which is separate from something else.’ Conflicting imperatives, paradoxes and no-win situations, he insisted, might well drive us mad, but they also spawn creativity, […]
Speaking truth to power – there’s no such thing as neutral
There is no such thing as neutral. There is no position, no placeholder, that doesn’t carry with it some subjectivity based on our experiences in the world. “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” if someone says it’s raining, and someone else says we’re […]