There is a ‘deep disquiet’ within liberal democracies: a feeling, manifested on both sides of politics, that the conventional order has failed and is beyond reform.
- Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Newcastle
Recent studies have shown declining levels of trust in democratic systems. We asked experts to consider democracy’s strengths and weaknesses.
Why are so many Americans unwilling to identify as liberals, white or otherwise, even while supporting traditionally ‘liberal’ government programs?
Wild Faith is a one-sided response to the rise of Christianity’s far-right fringe. Too often, it seems more like an apoplectic rant than a serious exposé.
The War Against the Past is sometimes convincing, but prompts larger questions about history, culture, education and morality.
Too often, we automatically dismiss ideas with unsettling implications. We need to focus on evidence, and on ordinary fairness and compassion towards others.
Same-sex marriage is no longer a revolutionary idea or even a novelty. Liberal-minded voters and realistic conservatives alike should see that its time has come.
Self-help book and works of popular psychology often instruct us in the art of apologising. Their advice is reflected, in turn, in much online discussion. Most commonly, we’re advised to give elaborate…
The time has come for Australia to provide for same-sex marriages. This would reflect countries with which we compare ourselves, and acknowledge the contemporary meaning of marriage.
Dolly, the world’s most famous and controversial sheep, was born twenty years ago – on July 5, 1996 to be precise. She was the first mammal to enter the world following a process of reproductive cloning…
Public shaming is not new. It’s been used as a punishment in all societies – often embraced by the formal law and always available for day-to-day policing of moral norms. However, over the past couple…
There is currently a fashion for religion/science accommodationism, the idea that there’s room for religious faith within a scientifically informed understanding of the world. Accommodationism of this…
In previous Cogito posts, I have defended freedom of speech, interpreted in a broad, non-legalistic sense. For example, I have defended Peter Singer’s liberty to express his controversial views on issues…
You know the shocking story: in January 2015, two masked Islamist gunmen launched a paramilitary attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine. The gunmen murdered 12 people…
A recent survey conducted on behalf of the Rationalist Association of New South Wales and the Humanist Society of Queensland has found that only 14 per cent of Australians were influenced by their religious…
In the United Kingdom, ongoing social and political controversy over voluntary euthanasia, or (physician) assisted suicide, has reached a new stage. Labour MP Rob Marris has put forward a private member’s…
We might hope that good arguments will eventually drive out bad arguments – in what Timothy Williamson calls “a reverse analogue of Gresham’s Law” – and we might want (almost?) complete freedom for ideas…
Hackers calling themselves “The Impact Team” recently stole the customer data of Ashley Madison, an online dating service for people who are married or in committed relationships. Ashley Madison employs…
I am one of the signatories of an open letter, organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, to the Prime Minister and President of Bangladesh. This protests the horrific situation for atheists…
Over the past month, there has been much debate about an ongoing process within Amnesty International to establish a new policy on prostitution. Amnesty’s processes On 11 August, 2015, the organization’s…
In a recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, high-profile psychologist and author Steven Pinker strongly criticized the profession, or academic field, of bioethics. Pinker’s article suggests that the main imperative…
In Part 1 of this article, I concluded that the term “cultural Marxism” has a variety of uses. It has been employed by right-wing ideologues, such as Anders Breivik, in grandiose theories of cultural history…
In a recent post at Cogito on the problem of cultural and political Manichaeism, I mentioned the apocalyptic manifesto of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik. Breivik was convicted of 77 murders that he…
Over the past 24 hours, Gawker, the controversial gossip blog owned by Gawker Media, has earned some extraordinary and entirely justified opprobrium. It brought this on itself by posting a prurient and…
Our political Manichaeism Throughout his recent book Moral Tribes (2013), American psychologist and experimental philosopher Joshua Greene portrays a cultural and political tribalism that divides modern…
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