by Charles on February 16, 2012
My son is dyslexic, and I’m glad.
Most people think that I am deranged or callous. But I have two related reasons, both of which seem to me to be good.
The first is that his dyslexia is an inextricable part of him. I can’t say: ‘This is the pathological bit, which I resent’, as one might say of a tumour. Take away his dyslexia, and he wouldn’t be the same person, but able to read and write. He wouldn’t be him. That would be far too high a price for me to pay. And for him to pay? Well, there you run into Parfit’s non-identity problem. [click to continue…]
by Charles on November 6, 2011
23 November 2011: 6-8 pm: E.P Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College, Oxford.
Humans have always sought to enhance themselves and their performance. Examples include education, the drinking of coffee, and the choice of reproductive partners whose genes are perceived to be desirable. But now, and increasingly, technology allows for enhancement of a kind and to a degree that call into question the definition of an individual and the relationship of ‘enhanced’ persons to ‘non-enhanced’ persons and to society generally. If person X takes a substance that increases his IQ by 100 points still person X? If the enhancing substance is not available to everyone, what are the political consequences? Is there anything wrong with the use of performance enhancers in sport? What about drugs that improve performance in university examinations? Is it desirable or practicable to ban enhancements of all types? [click to continue…]
by Charles on July 26, 2011
In the study hall, Yeshiva Bnei Rachel
What on earth is the philosophy of Judaism?
There are six elements. Each has roots in the Pentateuch. It is part of the mystery of Jewish identity that these principles produce techniques that are fecund and unembarrassing in the hands of avowed secularists.
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by Charles on March 28, 2011
Britain is rediscovering, just in time, that some good things are not mass-produced, pre-packaged, hysterically advertised and celebrity-promoted. One of those things is real ale. The stereotype of the real ale drinker is laughably out of date. If you think of matted beards, stained cardigans and huge bellies, you need to get out more.
Real ale is live beer which continues to develop in the cask. This further fermentation makes the beer naturally lively. It is either pulled from the cask by hand-pump or, even better, simply runs out by gravity. Its blasphemous caricature, keg beer, is dead, pasteurised and filtered. It undergoes no secondary fermentation, and often nestles under a protective blanket of inert gas. It fizzes with injected carbon dioxide.
Lager is a different style of beer, in which the fermentation happens at the top rather than the bottom of the vat. There is an honourable continental tradition of lager-making, and there are some magnificent cask-conditioned lagers to which all the real ale plaudits apply. But they are rarely seen here. The fair name of lager has been defamed. The obscenely overpriced lad-fuel of Eng-er-land has as much in common with real lagers as keg beer does with real ale.
Here are ten reasons to reject what passes for beer in the licensed ale-houses of England, and to ask for the real thing for once. [click to continue…]
by Charles on February 8, 2011
It was, of course, vanity which took me to Greenland. One of the great problems about travelling a lot, and advertising the fact in print, is that each trip has to be harder than the last. If it’s not, they’ll say that you’ve lost your nerve or slumped terminally in the suburbs, and your pride will convince you that they’re right. The consequent chase round the world becomes futile, boring and utterly addictive. There’s a boarding house near the quay in Calais which is more foreign than anywhere else I know. I wanted to go there. And so I stepped from a milk crate at Reykjavik City Airport onto a little turboprop heading for Kulusuk on the east coast of Greenland. [click to continue…]
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