Peace and Wisdom

The Prince and The Novelist

Sun May 4 13:00:00 GMT 2008

In this article I discuss and speculate on the curious relationship between The Prince Regent, Jane Austen and Mansfield Park.

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Mansfield Park, Puritans, Prigs and the Tyranny of Petty Coercion

Thu May 1 13:00:00 GMT 2008

I have written an article, Puritans, Prigs and the Tyranny of Petty Coercion, looking at two of Marilynne Robinson's essays in The Death of Adam and how they resonate with Mansfield Park. The purpose of this article is really to launch a new blog, Mansfield Park, devoted to analysing the novel, starting with a series of articles commentating on various aspects of each chapter (from the second volume onwards, when Sir Thomas returns from Antigua). As I am devoted to the heroine of the novel I am not anticipating too much in the way of complementary comments--but the great thing about blogs is that you get to throw the tomatoes, and though that conversation insight can arise for both of us.

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A Philosophical Manifesto

Thu May 1 13:00:00 GMT 2008

I have written a series of articles, A Philosophical Manifesto, explaining my conception of philosophy and why I think the writings of Jane Austen are particularly relevant to our modern philosophical crisis. Sadly, many of these articles are a bit forbidding, much more forbidding than they should be. Philosophy shouldn't be like this (it is indicative something wrong) but I have to address philosophy as it is understood today rather than as I think it should be, which is accessible, beautifully written, profound and, above all, wise; i.e., what is to be expected from a Jane Austen novel. Her writings have such power to engage, and are so well adjusted to our times, are written with such subtlety and psychological insight, that they seem to make all other philosophy pale in comparison. I know Buddhist philosophy is quite staggeringly profound, subtle, vast and psychologically acute, but it is unlikely to resonate in the same way to all but a minority of modern occidentals--or at least I suspect it is unlikely to. Austen connected modernity to our special heritage; this is a connection we badly need.

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'Big' Ethics and the War on Terror

Thu May 1 13:00:00 GMT 2008

In 'Big' Ethics and the War on Terror I try to separate out some of the ethical strands running through the the prosecution of the so-called War on Terror (torture, extra-rendition, etc.), basing the analysis on a recent discussion between Megan McArdle and Daniel Drezner. Some of the most bitter critics of the instigators of torture may have more in common with the objects of their contempt than they are aware of.

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What is Enlightenment?

Tue Mar 18 12:00:00 GMT 2008

Peter Knox-Shaw has drawn my attention to Jane Austen and 'Modern Europe', an article he has published in this month's Notes & Queries (55:1, March 2008), suggesting that 'this recent piece might help convince you!' Now what I am to be convinced of is the topic of this article but first I have to explain what Peter is driving at.

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Idiot Compassion

Mon Mar 17 12:00:00 GMT 2008

In Stop the Rhetorical Violence I questioned what I seemed to be an 'angry thread' running through the Media Lens media alerts and David Edwards has written a comprehensive and interesting reply as a comment to the article raising some excellent questions. This article picks up on those questions.

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Stop the Rhetorical Violence

Tue Mar 11 12:00:00 GMT 2008

The latest Media Lens alert, Israeli Deaths Matter More, provides a timely and refreshing analysis of the patently biased coverage of the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians. However there is a disturbing aspect of the Media Lens alerts, an angry thread running through them, especially directed at those in power. This may be counterproductive to the cause of peace and justice, indeed perpetuating the very injustice they are trying to resolve.

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The Cannibalistic News Hounds

Sat Mar 8 12:00:00 GMT 2008

In Flat Earth News Nick Davies has written a great book, one that every responsible literate person should read, and then read again. And Davies has certainly got people's attention. But for me the most surprising attempt to turn Davies's book into dog food was made by the Media Lens hounds, given their commitment to 'correcting the distorted vision of the corporate media'.

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Face facts, George Monbiot. Our environmental catastrophe is partly your responsibility

Mon Mar 3 12:00:00 GMT 2008

A comment on George Monbiot's Tuesday article in The Guardian where I question the compatibility of George Mobiot's aggressive secularism and environmental campaign.

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First Draft Completed of 'In Search of Sense and Sensibility'

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

I have posted the first draft of In Search of Sense and Sensibility in book.peaceandwisdom.org.

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The Barbarians Inside the Gate

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

There seems to be a gulf between our idealised perception of ourselves and what the objective data is saying.

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Candour, Pride and Prejudice

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

On the strange history of the word 'candour' and its central place in Austen's novels, especially Pride and Prejudice

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A Romantic Mystery Novel

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

The most subtle mystery of Sense and Sensibility is that it is after all a romantic novel.

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Emma's Debt to 'Sense and Sensibility'

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

While Emma (1815) is seen as Austen's masterpiece, Sense and Sensibility (1811) is said to show 'evidence of artistic immaturity' (Duckworth (1994)), but I beg to differ; it seems to show almost miraculous artistic maturity, that we are to this day still coming to terms with.

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The Modern Psyche

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

No other work that I am aware of does such a thorough job of exposing the nakedness of Hume's (and the enlightenment's and modernity's) sentimental project, blasting its ethical system into rubble, or at least it ought to have done, for as we know it did no such thing.

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Trapped in the Cabinet of Horrors

Sat Mar 1 12:00:00 GMT 2008

There are some interesting similarities and marked divergences between Sennett's 1974 The Fall of Public Man and what Sense and Sensibility seems to be saying.

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Studies in Peace and Wisdom

Wed Jan 30 12:00:00 GMT 2008

A series of seminars, Studies In Peace and Wisdom, taking place in the Bodhi Garden, will investigate the relationship between the West's Enlightenment philosophy and our propensity for making war. It will start with an introductory day retreat on the Saturday 16^th February followed by the series of evening seminars, starting on Tuesday 26^th February, and then every Tuesday until the end of April. Overviews of the retreat and the first five seminars are up on the website and the blog. At the moment we have two guest speakers: the award winning investigative journalist Nick Davies on the 4^th March talking about his book Flat Earth News and the shocking conclusion he has drawn from investigating his own industry, journalism; and the internationally recognised author and meditation teacher, Christopher Titmuss, on 25^th March taking on Why are we such a violent nation? Visit the website, read some of the extended essays (currently there is only one) or leave a comment on the blog.

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The Significance of the Iraqi Death Toll

Mon Jan 28 12:00:00 GMT 2008

This article explains the prominence given to the Just Foreign Policy estimates of the Iraqi death toll on the front page (bottom right).

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Only a philosophical revolution can save us from climate catastrophe

Mon Jan 21 12:00:00 GMT 2008

Recently I found myself turning up the heating in a room that I found insufferably warm to meet the needs of others. The problem was that I had left the heating off all winter (except on extraordinary occasions) and my judgement was shot. This may seem to have precious little to do with Professor John Gray's recent call for a respect for reality in the Great Global Warming Debate, but I think it may strike at Professor Gray's own lack of realism in his war on idealism.

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Pity the Moderator

Wed Jan 9 12:00:00 GMT 2008

There has been much concern about the propensity for debates to degenerate into brawls at the Guardian Comment is free blog recently. Very few people appreciate that the intention of the blogger when they write the comment is key, and that the moderator has to try and reconstruct that motivation in deciding whether a comment is hate speech. Discussions of this article on other forums tended to tense, and even angry.

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Stop the Demonising

Wed Jan 9 12:00:00 GMT 2008

Very few people in the West seem to properly appreciate how counterproductive it is to demonise, or even to properly understand what it means to demonise. This article questions some contemporary demons and has provoked some lively discussion on a couple of other (private) forums.

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An Email to Christopher Titmuss

Fri Dec 21 12:00:00 GMT 2007

I wrote this email to Christopher on the winter solstice shortly after he had agreed on the phone to give the talk. It provides a condensed explanation of the ideas being explored in the Studies in Peace and Wisdom series.

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Consciousness Really Explained?

Sun Jun 3 13:00:00 GMT 2007

This article proposes a cryptography-based thought experiment to explain why I think the astonishing hypothesis is so astonishing. The article has a look at the scientific idea of causation that emerges from Richard Feynman's philosophy of physics, arguing that this metaphysics-lite approach to causation is flexible and powerful, can naturally incorporate consciousness, and puts physicalism into perspective.

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