Luke is a Debating Matters alumnus, currently studying at Sussex University

‘Democracy’ without politics

Fishkin seems more interested in extracting approval from the public in order to legitimise the power of the elites, than in giving the public a role in political change. Democracy should mean that power is challenged and limited in response to political decisions, not confirmed in advance of them.

Legal highs

Mansfield displays a passion for moral argument, which is likely to become rarer and thus considered more and more radical over time, as more and more regulation creeps into the courtroom. It is unlikely that the barristers of tomorrow will dare to talk with any normative authority for fear of missing some vital detail and finding themselves debarred.

Legal limits

It is only when Foster’s thesis is bought in line with modern political debate that his argument is interesting and important, because it highlights the tension between an assumption in favour of life and an assumption in favour of personal autonomy.

Moving on the human rights debate

Although Stammers makes a powerful and timely case for revaluating our ideas of human rights independently from the state and the law, a more critical approach could easily have led him to conclude that NGOs in fact enforce this connection rather than challenging it.

The poverty of moral philosophy

By declaring the ‘solution to the Palestinian problem [is] in no way complex’, Ted Honderich articulates a Western disengagement from ethical debate that has become depressingly mainstream.

Being human without the safety net

Existentialism and Humanism is a fantastic piece of popular philosophy: a route into the ideas of some of the greatest philosophers throughout history, and a manifesto for making philosophy ‘useful’ without losing any devotion to scrutiny.

Untrustworthy popularity

Philosophy’s place in popular culture today is centred on self-improvement and egoism; this demeans the potential of philosophical enquiry whilst enforcing the idea that academic philosophy is completely inaccessible.

A forward motion

Two campaigners reflect on two days spent arguing for the motion to abolish No Platform at Sussex University.