Thank you Mr Wynn P Wheldon for such a significant question! Michel Foucault wrote extensively on this subject. My answer will be based on some of his insights. First let us understand what is meant by the word “humane”. We usually mean “merciful”, which implies that somehow incarceration is a “softer” kind of punishment than […]
Is incarceration more humane than corporal punishment? Read More
Thank you, Aditya Pandey, for an important and enduring question. We have here two distinct but intimately related questions. The first question really concerns whether we know when life begins, while the second pits life against body autonomy. Both require a substantial answer to the question of what constitutes life. I will therefore briefly explore
Great question! Basically, your freedom exists in your choosing from a set of acceptable behaviour choices provided to you by institutions of power, namely, the state or your culture. That being said, try walking into your neighbour’s house uninvited and pulling some ice cream out of the freezer, and you’ll find that cultural and societal
Thank you, Mohammed Ajmi, for this timely question. In many respects, our societies are safer than the ones in which our ancestors lived. At the same time, however, it could be argued that humanity has never been so under threat as it is now. Think of the existence of weapons of mass destruction (especially when
Thank you, Angus Nimmo, for such a productive question! Philosophers like questioning questions as a start, and this might well be a helpful method here. Why think that it is wrong not to have children? One answer, perhaps familiar from social pressure, would be to see parenting as a life accomplishment. But, for someone who
Is it wrong to be child-free by choice? Read More
