IS there some feature, or set of features, that set humans apart from all other animals? And if there is, does that make us different in kind or degree? Until relatively recently it was thought that humans were unique. It is an idea promoted throughout the millennia by various religions but also by secular thinkers …
Tag Archives: Francis Bacon
Reason versus reason
IT is often thought that the main threat to the kind of rationality so admired by enthusiasts for the Enlightenment is, well, irrationality – faith, alternative medicines and the New Age movement. Indeed this view seems to be cemented by the wild irrationality of Trump and his followers – although one does wonder sometimes whether …
Climb every mountain!
IN this world of alternative facts and relativism it’s comforting to know that there is a hilltop far away where the light of truth still flickers – if somewhat dimly. Indeed, towards the end of the 16th century the metaphor of the hilltop of truth was used by Francis Bacon – who was to become …