Taxing Wealth
The question of how best to tax wealth has long been posed. In a recent pamphlet the French economist Gabriel Zucman both analyses the extent and depth of wealth inequality in France (and elsewhere)...
View ArticleSartre and Objects for Self vs Others
I didn’t read any of Sartre until I became an undergrad, maybe aged 19 or so. It was unusual in a UK university to be introduced to existentialist thought as part of a philosophy course, dominated as...
View ArticleExperiential Knowledge Versus Research
I recall having a dispute, all very mid-Surrey and polite, around the issue of the importance of teachers for their pupil’s future accomplishment. It was with two teachers, both very experienced and I...
View ArticleStudent Evaluations
I got my first university teaching appointment in 1978. Student feedback was more-hit-or miss affair then. Perhaps relatedly, university tenure was understood to be a tangible thing rather than a vague...
View Article‘Taffy’ Evans
The headmaster of my grammar school was T.A. ‘Taffy’ Evans. He’d been appointed to Worthing High School for Boys in 1958 – I became a pupil in 1961 – and departed in 1968 – the year I too left for...
View ArticleControlling External Examiners
I spent many years as an internal examiner when it was routine to submit one’s exam papers to an external examiner for approval and a ratification of sorts. Does this still happen as a matter of...
View ArticlePhilosophers: Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was key thinker in the Anglo-Saxon analytic tradition. It has become common practice to differentiate between the early Wittgenstein of ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’,...
View ArticleTwo Hypotheses for Sociologists
Another quick blog addressed to sociologists. It raises a couple of issues, hypotheses of sorts. The first suggests that for all many of us are committed to the view that society is an ‘open system’ –...
View ArticleA Sociological Autobiography: 115 –‘Frail’? Qui Moi?
When I attended the celebration of Mike Bury’s career and writings last Thursday (3/9/26), there was much discussion of the concept of ‘frailty’. Dictionary definitions refer to physical weakness or a...
View ArticleChina: Capitalist vs Party Elites
This is my third blog on Branko Milanovic’s ‘The Global Transformation’, which suggests I’m both enjoying reading it and finding doing so challenging and rewarding. My first comments have to do with...
View ArticleMike Bury and Thoughts on the Sociology of Chronic Illness and Disability
It was a great pleasure today to attend and speak at a meeting in Senate House in London to celebrate the career and writings of Mike Bury. Not least of the day’s pleasures was reacquainting with...
View ArticleMilanovic and the New Chinese Elite
My last blog addressed Branko Milanovic’s evidence-based statement that the ruling class in countries like the USA has taken on a new look – a fusion of the professional-managerial class and the top...
View ArticleMilanovic, Homoploutia and Credentialism
This blog draws on Branko Milanovic’s new book entitled ‘The Great Global Transformation’, an impressive volume that offers an evidence-based assessment of the present state of geopolitics. My...
View ArticlePhilosophers: G.W.F Hegel
Like Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a catalyst, a take-off point for many divergent thinkers. Left-Hegelians diverged one way, Right-Hegelians another. There is no one reading of...
View ArticlePhilosophers: Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is one of the most influential of ‘modern’ philosophers, covering a lot of ground in an impeccably fine-tuned and systematic manner. Offering any kind of summary of his works...
View ArticleA Brief Intro to Habermas’ Critical Theory
1 An Introduction to Habermas Jurgen Habermas is less discussed than he was even a decade ago, but having written of the relevance of his work for health and health care I am still occasionally asked...
View ArticlePhilosophers: Martin Heidegger
Michael Worton, one time Professor of French Literature and a Vice-Provost at UCL, once told me Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was the most important philosopher of the 20th century. Against that I once...
View ArticleA Sociological Autobiography: 114 – Still Writing.
I’m reading a book on the working habits and outputs of the lately deceased David Hockney. I’m not a great fan of his paintings to be honest, although I can see his talent through his drawings. What...
View ArticleA Poem on Genocide
Zionism in Action Let’s call it out for what it is, this wilful destruction of all things Palestinian, this all-consuming genocide, this visiting of death on children cowering in tents. Let’s call...
View ArticlePhilosophers: Aristotle
Aristotle’s (384-322 BC) was a polymath who studied at Plato’s Academy. He came to differ significantly from Plato in his approach and subject matter however, attributing much more importance to the...
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