Recommended reading for Keynote Controversies
The
- Classical music flourishes when those being taught aren’t patronised, observes Julian Lloyd Webber:China's brilliant cellists - and a classical music football quiz Telegraph 01 June 2006
- Between the arts and government Martin Kettle discerns mutual antipathy where there should be accord – if only New Labour politicians would recognise why art really is good for society: The gulf between the arts and New Labour is growing wider Guardian 20 May 2006
- Whereas subsidising health or education is deemed unquestionably good, the case for arts has not been so forthcoming. Speaking at the launch of the Demos pamphlet (see below), David Lammy seeks to legitimate the arts by conversing with the public: Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy Davidlammy.co.uk 29 March 2006
- Concerned that socially instrumental justifications for funding the arts do nothing to convince people of art's ‘intrinsic value,’ John Holden urges both government and arts professionals to engage with the public: Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy Demos 29 March 2006
- To judge one work of art superior to another is not elitist, argues Dolan Cummings, it is the mark of cultural engagement: What good are the arts? Culture Wars 28 June 2005
- Locating the ‘intrinsic value’ of art in its ability to enrich people’s inner lives, Tessa Jowell attempts to show how ‘culture lies at the heart of a healthy society’: Government and the Value of Culture Department for Culture, Media and Sport (
Human enhancement: Creating super-humans or dicing with our destinies?
Books
- Offering a positive assessment of the impact biotechnology will have on our lives, Ramez Naan calls for innovation over caution: More Than Human: Embracing the Possibility of Biological Enhancement Broadway Books 2005
- Parents should be allowed to alter their children’s genetic characteristics, argues Nicolas Agar: Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement Blackwell Publishing 2004
- If, as Raymond Tallis asserts, it is in our ability to distance ourselves from ‘the script laid down by biology’ that our humanity lies, then human enhancement technologies are not so much a diminution than a manifestation of what makes us human: I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-person Being
Articles/essays
- In this set of essays commisioned by Demos, three transhumanists are pitted against various critics of enhancement technologies: James Wilsdon et al. Better Humans: The Politics of Human Enhancement and Life Extension Demos 2006
- Concerned at the extent to which the pace of technological and social change has exposed our frailties, Jeremy Laurance asks: How would we redesign ourselves? Independent 19 June 2006
- Alok Jha takes a brief look at specific technologies, from an exoskeleton to a bionic eye: In the 70s he was a TV fantasy. Now the bionic man is real and he even plays sax Guardian 15 April 2006
- 'What starts out as a luxury often ends up becoming a necessity.' Are human enhancement technologies in danger of enslaving those they are meant to serve, asks Dylan Evans: The savage solution Guardian 27 February 2006
- 'If you can have Viagra for an enhanced sexual life, why not Viagra for the mind.' Such blithe acceptance of human enhancement technology gives Madelaine Bunting cause for concern: There is no stop button in the race for human re-engineering Guardian 30 January 2006
- With gene therapy able to boost muscle mass twice as effectively as steroids, Nick Morgan reports on the problems, ethical and physiological, now facing sports' ruling bodies: Gene therapy promises the Holy Grail Telegraph 22 May 2005
- Debunking the hype around genetic research is necessary but this should not obscure the genuine prospects for scientific advance, argues Stuart Derbyshire: Genetics in Medicine: Real Promises, Unreal Expectations British Medical Journal 2001
The
- The
- Via a regularly updated blog Will Wilkinson analyses public policy, particularly the uses and abuses of ‘happiness’: Happiness and Public Policy
- ‘It embodies an almost aristocratic disdain for ordinary people who want to raise their living standards.’ Daniel Ben-Ami takes issue with Avner Offer's advocacy of 'happiness': Review of Avner Offer's 'The Challenge of Affluence' Culture Wars 03 July 2006
- Diognoses of mental illness are rising because people are refusing to reconcile themselves to reaility. George Monbiot blames advertising: We are making our children ill with unrealisable expectations Guardian 27 June 2006
- The pressures of modern life made Hollie Smith an unhappy mum. That was until the science of happiness intervened: Happy Mother's Day The Times 27 June 2006
- Since it ‘extends horizons and widens opportunities for more and more people,’ can affluence really be to blame for our ills? The Economist doesn’t think so: The Perils of Prosperity: Can you be too rich? Economist 27 April 2006
The
Books
- Rather than explain the disappearance of societies in terms of some natural cataclysm, Jared Diamond argues that their fates have always been in their own hands: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Penguin Books 2006
- Arguing that 'globalisation' has lost its grip on the future, John Ralston Saul heralds the rebirth of self-determining nation sates, and with it, politics: The Collapse of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World Atlantic Books 2006
- With the political exhaustion of traditional alternatives to the present, the consequent powerlessness makes the future a source of fear. In response Frank Furedi argues for 'a culture that valorises people's potential and agency... the point of departure for any agenda that attempts to endow politics with a sense of purpose': Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right Continuum 2005
Articles/essays
- Calling for a 'responsible futurism,' Yuval Levin tempers belief in the necessity of experimentation with responsibility towards future generations: Imagining the Future The New Atlantis 2004
- For Jared Diamond, the life of the hunter-gatherer was far preferable to that ushered in by the advent of agriculture: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race Discover Magazine May 1987
- Whether it's environmental collapse, the clash of civilisations gone nuclear, or just some form of socio-economic meltdown, many find it far easier to envisage the end of contemporary society than its future. Kurt Andersen takes a thoughtful look at the reasons for this near 'pornographic' obsession with apocalyspe: The end of the world as they know it New York Magazine 02 October 2006
- In the failure to defend freedom of speech, the west's loss of inner confidence is writ large, argues Sajjad Khan: Cartoons, Voltaire and the Non-Clash of Civilisations New Civilisation 10 August 2006
- With science and politics unable to provide society with moral purpose perhaps we should seek help from religion, reckons Madelaine Bunting: Faith can make a vital contribution to both democracy and scientific ethics Guardian 19 June 2006
- Most immigrants come to Europe to better themselves and to secure a brighter future for their children, not to pursue some Osama Bin Laden inspired fantasy. So why the furore over a 'clash of civilisations' asks Martin Walker: Europe's Mosque Hysteria The Wilson Quarterly
- Slavoj Zizek Defenders of the Faith New York Times 12 March 2006
- With a government using legislation when it suits, and ignoring the rule of law when necessary, Johan Steyn sees little evidence of a civil and just society in Britain, let alone one that can be imported abroad: This all-powerful government is prone to creeping authoritarianism Guardian 22 April 2006
- Martin Walker claims that 'Europe has been gripped by dark, even apocalyptic visions of a Muslim invasion' in Europe's Mosque Hysteria
Reassessing liberty - is John Stuart Mill still relevant today?
- Henry Porter and Tony Blair debate whether recent legislation is curtailing people’s freedom rather than protecting it: Britain's liberties: The great debate Observer 23 April 2006
- Assessing the legacy of John Stuart Mill, Roger Scruton argues that, taken together, ‘On Liberty' and ‘Principals of Political Economy’ anticipate the State regulation of nearly every aspect of the individual's life: Throughly Modern Mill Opinion Journal 19 May 2006
- Johann Hari reckons that if John Stuart Mill were around today he’d tell us ‘to redistribute wealth to the poor, to worry more about happiness than about acquiring ever-greater baubles of wealth, and to protect our free speech against all comers’: We've never needed John Stuart Mill more Independent 27 March 2006