On Being a Christian Academic
Article
There are just two things that you need to know about me, which provide my credentials for speaking to the title ‘On being a Christian academic’. The first is that I came to Oxford in 1966 as a student to study for the M Phil in Economics, and four years later I was elected to a Fellowship at Jesus College...
Read MoreLetters to the Young
Article
This Comment crystallizes a sensibility that might seem countercultural: that the young—hungry for guidance, advice, expertise, and criticism—have something to learn, and that their elders are a source of wisdom. Central to Comment's vision is an appreciation that God calls us to a range of vocations...
Read MoreWhat are Universities For?
Article
Andrei Zhdanov, Stalin's cultural enforcer, opened his address to the 1948 Moscow Congress of Composers thus: Comrade Musicians, permit me a few opening remarks on the role of the creative artist in society. In the West, the artist is a mere ornament, victim to market forces. He can be made, or...
Read MoreWhat does it mean to be human? Christian and social scientific understandings of human beings in society
Article
Across the range of disciplines in the Social Sciences, there is a variety of conceptions of what it is to be a human being. These might be thought to be more or less satisfactory, partly in their use as social constructs within each discipline, and more widely in understanding human beings generally...
Read MoreSocial and economic ethics and the basis for public policy
Article
Social science has always had a normative content, seeking to inform social and economic policies. Indeed the desire not only to understand the world, but also to change it, has been the main stimulus to the development of social science disciplines over the years. Economists and other social scientists...
Read MoreAdvice to Christian Philosophers
Article
In the paper that follows I write from the perspective of a philosopher, and of course I have detailed knowledge of (at best) only my own field. I am convinced, however, that many other disciplines resemble philosophy with respect to things I say below. (It will be up to the practitioners of those other...
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