Universities in their original conception were idealised in the Renaissance as places that could produce ‘intellectuals’. An intellectual was a person of inquiring mind who, through rational judgment and prodigious independent study, battled with an intellect they could not suppress, to…
It’s 2004 and Boston Legal defence lawyer Alan Shore rises to his feet to deliver a blistering defence of personal misconduct, immorality and criminal negligence. He tells the court that ‘every first year law student is taught: don’t ever, everequate legal ethics with morality. They’re almost always mutually exclusive.’
It’s two months before America enters World War I, and Woodrow Wilson stands before the Senate to deliver a speech to the American people. His recent appeals to the Allies and Entente for peace have failed, and yet here he stands again. His 14 points, yet to be written, are forming in the back of his mind as he makes his way to the podium for one last, desperate plea. It’s a simple message, “only a peace between equals can last.” Only a peace where all nations are seen as “equal”, with no difference between big or small, powerful or weak, will peace exist worldwide, Wilson insists. The “common good” of humanity must be placed above the “individual strength” of nations, or the world will degenerate into new and ever worse World Wars.
The argument for perspective has won. No longer can we question what is wrong with life, the world or the absurdity of a checkout line. Instead we must embrace -not the triviality of adult existence- but a new perspective on why the…
It is a simple matter to rank the empathy we feel for those around us. Consider the following: How aggrieved would you be if a family member was murdered? How about a friend? An acquaintance? A stranger? A stranger overseas?…
When Australia first entered the Iraq war in 2003, Prime Minister John Howard gave a cursory nod to representative government. Calling all Federal MP’s back into session, Howard gave them each a chance to vote for “war or peace”. The…
There is a growing trend of what I like to think of as the outsourcing of thought – where our own thoughts are subservient to those deemed “superior authorities”. Part of this collective-mind-holiday comes from the Internet: our tool to…
When I first entered law school I wanted to become a lawyer. This shouldn’t surprise you. Neither should the fact that 66% of students entering law school want to become legal practitioners. What should surprise you is that 64% of…
In 1784 Immanuel Kant answered a question, posed a year earlier by Reverend Johann Friedrich Zöllner – “What is enlightenment?” His answer was that enlightenment “was man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity”. A state of immaturity is when one allows another’s reason to guide…
There’s a long-running trend in student politics for students to shout out “shame” when their opposing political party is mentioned. I first heard this in 2012 in the heady days of the Gillard Government and Abbott Opposition. It was the…