Bruce Charlton's Notions

I'm reading a thought-provoking book called God's Philosophers: how the medieval world laid the foundations of modern science, by Ja...

The matter of euthanasia has been 'in the news' lately in England, because of the advocacy of Terry Pratchett. (Sorry, but I reall...

My policy on comments may need explaining. I am selective about publishing comments, and - on the whole - only publish a few comments that...

It seems that hardly anybody nowadays is interested in the actual historical process by which the British Empire abolished slavery worldwide...

I have always been troubled about the attitude shown toward Saruman by first Gandalf then Frodo, at the end of the Lord of the Rings. Saru...

The idea of retiring on a generous pension after about 40 years of 'work' seems likely to have become obsolete by the time I get the...

Until I encountered Eastern Orthodoxy, I never could understand saints and could not see the value of saints. * This failure was not par...

When people are asked about the success of modernity, they usually refer first to medicine. I mean that when people are asked to evaluate ...

"I do not admire the excess of a virtue like courage unless I see at the same time an excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas,...

C.S Lewis commented that if there is one virtue in which modern civilization excels, that virtue is kindness. * Peter Kreeft expands on ...

I am not sure, but I suspect, that above all, Western civilization became powerful because of its ethic of truthfulness. This was probably...

The use, or value, of universities can only be measured with reference to the aims of society as a whole - to talk about the disinterested o...

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defintions of 'cosy': Positive: Of a person: comfortably sheltered, snug; of a place: sheltered,...

Carl Elliott has published a shocking, truthful, rigorous and brave article on the gross dishonesty and immorality typical of modern Big Pha...

I have been thinking about the apparent impossibility of what C.S. Lewis described as 'Mere' Christianity in the modern world. Fro...

Back to daily blogging.

I have made another mini-e-booklet from this blog, which is titled Decline of the West Explained and is posted at - http://declineofwestexpl...

I have posted up a mini-e-booklet called The Story of Real Science - drawn from this blog: http://thestoryofscience.blogspot.com/ If any...

Thanks very much indeed to all the people who have regularly read, and recently commented, on this blog while I have been posting daily. I...

"We must remember that Christ expects from us not missionary fervor, but a changed life and a warm heart. "The missionary fervor...

We live in an era of ideology, and this ideology is becoming totalitarian, all-pervasive, compulsory - even as it loses self-belief and mass...