Chapter 1: The Problem Since the early 2000s there have been warning signs of the ‘health of [Australia’s] democracy’ being threatened by the abandonment of universities as communities of intellectuals, in favour of a new model driven by ‘market forces’…
In Political Liberalism, John Rawls argues that, “political power is always coercive power backed by the government’s use of sanctions, for government alone has authority to use force in upholding its laws” (Rawls 1993, p. 136).[i] In saying as much, Rawls is echoing a commonly held belief: that the state has the power to coerce its citizens, and this coercion prevents citizens from breaking the law. In most modern states, citizens are routinely threatened with arrest and incarceration if they do not abide by the state’s legal system. The language of “authority” is often used to justify this coercive action (Goffman 1982; Morris 2004, p. 196; Weber 1947).[ii]
In 1974, the philosopher Robert Nozick came up with the idea of an ‘experience machine’, a thought experiment which involved the following situation: Suppose there was an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Super-duper neuropsychologists could…
In his treatise on free will, philosopher Sam Harris claims that if an act is formulated in our subconscious then that act cannot be said to be willed by us. A reflex action to catch a ball, an instinctual action…
During a recent Q and A event, American presidential nominee Bernie Sanders was confronted by a young man and asked a question that typifies the political apathy of modern youth. The young man was previously asked by a friend in…
The anthropologist David Graeber has this idea that culture has been relabelled as consumption. So: what were formerly the traits of the hippies, the principles: free love, free expression, peace not war and so on, have been replaced by the…
In previous centuries divisions of society were mended and band-aided by communal meeting areas: Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and other religious and civic halls. The decline of religion, or at least the decline of religious attendance, has seen the decline of…
Reading the letters of old writers and poets from previous centuries, you get the sense that they knew the ‘big events’ happening in the world at the time. These days, those “big events” are screened into our houses everyday, yet…
We are born without prejudice. Ask a baby if he hates any particular person and he will stare at you, blink occasionally and eventually (as is the norm for someone his age) burst into tears –not because of a profound…
Due to evolution, when our enemy is hurt, we celebrate. When our enemy is killed, we chant in the streets. When many of our enemies are killed we declare: “mission accomplished” on an aircraft carrier. Survival of our ‘tribe’ mandates…