Crash course in philosophy
Anyone wanting to hold forth on last week’s bombings in London and its position in the political landscape is going to have to brush up on their philosophy.
Moral equivalence, moral relativism and determinism are just three of the concepts I’ve had to try and build into my worldview today. That you learn something everyday is still an immutable truth.
A glib remark about silver linings should probably go here.
Posted on July 11th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
| See also • The Sunday Times: Rachel North - Reforming the radicals • Bruises that won’t heal • July 7 petition |
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speaking of which (sort of) how are you getting on with Bertie?
He’s in the back seat at the minute. I’ve veered off into an Orwell obsession after reading “Politics and the English Language” - I went a bit mental on ebay and picked up three biographies and his collected fiction.
I’m not sure which guy is more useful at the minute though.
Hmm… they’re an odd couple - a philosopher who was more famed for his rhetoric than his thoughts (maybe) and a writer whose ideas outshone his talents as a scribe…
Never read a biography of Orwell - when you do can you confirm/deny what I’ve heard about him bunking off to be rich for a while all the time during his down and out phase?
HOWP doesn’t really relate to the immediate stuff in the same way to Orwell (at least his political work), but Russell’s other books, esp. Sceptical Essays and Power are just as relevant, if not more so.
For similarities: both of them treated politics with disdain and both (in the interwar years at least) thought an international socialist revolution would cure the world. And they were both doing so well…