Australian stuff A local talk 15 Mar 202415 Mar 2024 HPS book celebration at the University of Melbourne Continue Reading
Australian stuff Kinds of drivers 5 Mar 20246 Mar 2024 As a motorcyclist, I am acutely aware of other road users, and some patterns crop up which I am certain is unique to Melbourne, of models driven by those who have no concern for other road users, and especially not those of a two-wheeled kind. So, after some 40 years’ experience, and still being alive, if battered, here are the kinds of drivers to avoid. Continue Reading
Australian stuff The Economy Does Not Exist – thoughts prior to the Australian federal election 2019 7 Apr 20197 Apr 2019 In coming days and weeks we are again going to be bombarded with the usual clichés about the economy. This or that will be good for or bad for The Economy. As a philosopher of sorts, I have problems with this. Some background first. In the philosophy of the social… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Secular Calvinism 5 Mar 2016 Australia is one of the most secular of developed nations. At the last census, 22% of people marked “No religion” as their affiliation, and the attendance at religious services weekly dropped to 16%, from a high in 1950 of 44%. So why is it that a sizeable minority (around 30%)… Continue Reading
Australian stuff On tribalism 25 Sep 201424 Nov 2022 Humans evolved in tribes, our species’ equivalent of the general primate troop structure. This meant that members of the tribe benefited from shared resources, the protection of the group and the inherited knowledge of the tribe. It also meant that we will natively and naively defend our group against others,… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Time for a predictable, just and independent surveyor of government and politics 13 Sep 201413 Sep 2014 This is about Australian politics, so please ignore it if you do not care. In New South Wales there is a quasi-judicial investigative organ called the Independent Commission against Corruption, or ICAC (which a certain news empire’s rags insist upon calling “Icac” to avoid focusing on the meaning of the… Continue Reading
Australian stuff An unjust government 3 Jun 20143 Jun 2014 This one is about Australian politics. International readers may ignore it. There has been a lot of media and internet hype and fun had about the silly and unfair Australian government and its abortion of a budget in which the poor, the unemployed and the future of our nation, students,… Continue Reading
Australian stuff David Armstrong dies 17 May 201417 May 2014 I received this message via the Australasian Association of Philosophy: The philosophical community will be saddened to learn that David Malet Armstrong died on the 13th of May after a long illness: two months shy of his 88th birthday. DMA or Armo, as he was affectionately known, is the most… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Are political parties the problem not the solution? 27 Mar 2014 I am slightly active in the political party that I am a member of, but it worries me that maybe it is the very existence of political parties as formal structures that is the problem in modern politics in democracies. Here is a brief argument why: If you have a… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Bastardry: On protest and on fascism 17 Mar 201417 Mar 2014 I attended the March in March protest against the current government of Australia yesterday. My legs still hurt. I’m sure that demonstrations were not so arduous thirty years ago. I noticed that this was a privative demonstration. It was not about something so much as against something, and the something it was… Continue Reading