Tradition and Politics

Detail from James Gillray's 'New Morality'. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

‘Without a tradition, everything is impermanence and flux.’ Thus writes David Brooks in a New York Times piece giving advice to the rebellious and dissatisfied youth of today. If you are one of these youth, Brooks’ advice is that your rebellion should be grounded in a past tradition:

‘If I could offer advice to a young rebel, it would be to rummage the past for a body of thought that helps you understand and address the shortcomings you see. Give yourself a label. If your college hasn’t provided you with a good knowledge of countercultural viewpoints — ranging from Thoreau to Maritain — then your college has failed you and you should try to remedy that ignorance.’

On What Matters, Volume I and II

“Not quite the top of the mountain”

Derek Parfit’s On What Matters has been the most eagerly awaited work in philosophy since Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. Read Constantine Sandis’ review of this book in the Times Higher Education online.

The journal Ratio which has a focus on analytic philosophy, recently produced a special issue book entitled ‘Essays on Derek Parfit’s On What Matters’, edited by Jussi Suikkanen and John Cottingham. In Essays on Derek Parfit’s On What Matters, seven leading moral philosophers (including Princeton’s Michael Smith, one of the world’s leading meta-ethicists) offer critical evaluations of the central ideas presented in the greatly anticipated work by world-renowned moral philosopher Derek Parfit.  

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