August/September 2019 ●Philosophy Now 35???
The next question is this: out of the famous thinkers of history,
Who Is The Worst Philosopher? Please give and justify your
answer in less than 400 words. The prize is a semi-random
book from our book mountain. Subject lines should be
marked ‘Question of the Month’, and must be received by
14th October 2019. If you want a chance of getting a book,
please include your physical address. Submission is
permission to reproduce your answer.favours. However there is a Third Way, outlined by Karl Popper
in The Open Society and its Enemies (1945), involving piecemeal social
engineering. This started in Bismarck’s Germany, with the wel-
fare state. Ever since, taxes have been used to provide pensions,
healthcare, and support for the unemployed. The level of taxa-
tion can be optimised to maximize tax revenue whilst not remov-
ing incentives. Piecemeal social engineering can continue to be
used to avert ecological disaster by the application of environ-
mental economics. The concept of environmental economics
began in the 1920s and was based on the concept of externalities,
coined in the Nineteenth Century by Jules Dupuit. An ‘external-
ity’ is the result of an economic activity on a third party which is
not included in the cost of that activity; for example, when indus-
trial activity leads to air or water pollution, but the industry does
not pay for this pollution. Neither purely market-orientated eco-
nomic systems nor centrally planned economics have historically
taken much account of externalities. However, piecemeal social
engineering can take account of them by ensuring that the pol-
luter pays either by taxation or by fines. As a result of legislation,
gone are the days of smog and smoke from chimneys in the old
industrial cities of Britain.
So piecemeal social engineering is the best available model
for combating climate change. It can encourage innovations
without authoritarianism and without unrestricted growth,
which is detrimental to the environment.
RUSSELL BERG , M ANCHESTER
I
s there a Third Way? Democracy is now under the influence
of consumerism. Byung-Chul Han’s concept of non-time – the
notion that there are “no longer any dams that regulate, articu-
late or give rhythm to the flow of time” only demonstrates the
incestuous relationship democracy has with capitalism: we merely
move from one product to the next in a kind of limbo in which
there is no real beginning or end. We channel our citizenship
toward consumerism, giving tacit assent to our government to
undergo a process of zoning. As Alain Badiou states, “In entire
zones of the world (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, etc.) govern-
ments are destroyed, wiped out, and the area becomes a looting
zone... open to capitalist predators.” He reminds us that “1% of
the global population possess 46% of the available resources while
50% of the global population possess nothing.” These statistics
have come to represent the paradigm for democracy.
The trouble is there seems to be no solution other than
democracy. So for a Third Way, democracy must undergo an
evolution in which we address both environmental and human
needs. It must replace the effects of hegemony with a global-
ized citizenship. Jürgen Habermas writes, “politics must glob-
alize too, in order to rein in the economy. It means expanding
politics beyond the nation state”. This change will require gov-
ernments and their citizens to bring a reflective attitude to sup-
plant greed and create a system where the redistribution of
wealth and stewardship for nature becomes paramount.
Only through a thoughtful dialogue with citizens can demo-
cratic states create a balanced distribution of wealth with its
implications for a better world. However, to our consternation,
this evolution has proven to be a long and laborious process.
Bertrand Russell’s warning should be heeded: “We all have a
tendency to think that the world must conform to our preju-
dices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and
most people would sooner die than think – in fact they do so.”
MARK BENNETT , N EWMARKET , ON.
T
he Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is an environ-
mental movement that calls for people to abstain from
reproduction to cause the gradual extinction of humanity:The Third Way: Voluntary Human Extinction
‘To be or not to be’
We live to let the petals fall,
Of all the bitter almonds
Life’s the bitterest of all.
So let the human gently go
Into rivers deep with silvery sleep
Where the world’s dreams flow.
A gradual halt to human birth
Will reinvigorate the broken Earth.
Quality of living over quantity of life
Existential flowering with the existential knife.
Countries, creeds – all cast aside
An end to the great human divide.
Ecology over industry
Agricultural sustainability.
Economics left to rot
Capital made us lose the plot.
Consumerism lost its shine
As did all things divine
A renaissance of flourishing yet may come
Harmony when man and world are one.
Plastic pollution: there’s a solution
Failed politics: there’s a solution
To war and greed there’s a solution –
A slow extinction revolution.
The Third Way – stop reproducing
The Third Way – ‘live long and die’
The Third Way – bid this pale blue dot
A voluntary goodbye.
Earth will once again give birth
To life that knows the planet’s worth.
Slowly concrete turns to dust,
Slowly cities start to rust,
We’ll leave Earth clean, forests green
Leave the stars to shine alone unseen.
Resource abundance, flowers, trees
An end to corporate dis-ease
Human legacy shall not be
On land, sand, sea or stone
But in the memory of a world
We briefly once called home.BIANCA LALEH
TOTNES, D EVONQuestion of the Month