The ISSN 0014-1690 Ethical Record Vol. 92 No. 1 JANUARY 1987 EDITORIAL other articles, what was quoted in the editorials of the last issue (page Read This Issue 23): LYNDA BIRKE'S view of the Carefully need for "human engagement with history". IN THE LAST NUMBERThe OF Ethical JASPER RIDLEY'S outline of JOHN Record there was only one main KNOX'S life and ideas supports his article but there were many smaller claim that Knox "was one of the contributions (particularly in View- most successful revolutionaries": points and Notes on the Way) While STEPHEN COLEMAN'S adVO- demonstrating the interest of cacy in support of the motion de- readers in a wide range of issues of bated at Conway Hall on October ethical importance. 12 last shows the attitude of a This month there is a reverse— present-day "revolutionary" to the pages in this issue are largely de- almost universally supposed need voted to those who have given for police, prisons and armies. Then lectures, though there are also one COLIN MILLS, in reviewing SISSELA or two important contributions BOK'S new book on The Ethics of from readers, Concealment and Revelation, The interesting thing is the way brings out factors behind decisions in which the diverse items interlink, we have to make in our attitudes both within this issue and stretch- to and actions about many contem- ing back into the last and other porary concerns — particularly in issues. HAROLD BLACKHAM'S plea, view of the present world:wide after his analysis of human ideals, attention on secrecy in government is that there is no alternative to (USA, Australia, Ireland, UK). being an activist* (even if that We recommend readers' close means "a dubious and- uncomfort- able reputation")—reflecting, as do Continued on page 3 CONTENTS Page Coming to Conway Hall: Christopher Brunel, David Murray, Stan Newens, Steven Rose, Margaret Scorer, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter and John White . 2 The Age-Long Conflict of Human Ideals: Harold Blackham 3 "Society Would be More Secure Without Police, Prisons or Armies": A Debate: In Favour—Stephen Coleman . 6 Jolzn Knox as a Revolutionary Leader: Jasper Ridley . 9 The Power of Secrecy—The Conflict Between Confidence and Disclosure: Review of Sissela Bok's new book: Colin Mills 15 Review of David Wedgewood's "Elementary Ethics" . 19 Thomas Paine and other items: Sam Beer . 21 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society. PUBLISHED BY THE SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1R 4RL SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Appointed Lecturers: H. J. Blackhain, Fenner Brockway, Richard Clements, OBE, T. F. Evans, Peter Heales, Richard Scorer, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter Hall Manager: Geoffrey Austin (tel. 01-242 8032) Secretary: Anne Sieve (Wed-Fri, tel. 01-242 8033) Honorary Representative: Sam Beer Chairman General Committee: Barbara Smoker Deputy Chairman: Norman Bacrac Honorary Registrar: Bill Horsley Honorary Treasurer: Victor Rose Temporary Honorary Librarian: Edwina Palmer Editor, The Ethical Record : Peter Hunot Trustees: Harold Blackham, Christine Bondi, Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony Chapman, Peter Heales, Peter Hunot, George Hutchinson, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, Victor Rose, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe COMING TO CONWAY HALL Sunday Morning LECTURES at 11.00 am in the Library January 4. No meeting. January I I. MARGARET SCORER.Crime and the Police. January 18. HARRY STOPES-ROE.Humanism and Science. January 25. CHRISTOPHER BRUNEL.Thomas Paine. February I. STAN NEWENS, MEP.The European Parliament. February 8. NICOLAS WALTER. Subject to be announced. Sunday Forums at 3.00 pm in the Library January 11. DAVID MURRAY.Why Darwin Matters. January 25. JOHN WHITE.Helping Our Children to be Good-42 years on from the 1944 Education Act. February 1. Speaker and Subject to be announced. A Tuesday Debate January 27 at 7.30 pm (prompt) in the Library Is There A Human Nature? PROFESSOR STEVEN ROSE, BA, PhD, FIBiol, FRSA. Biology Department, the Open University. DR HARRY STOPES-ROE, recently retiredSenior Lecturer in Science Studies, Extra-Mural Department, University of Birmingham. Sunday Social at 3.00 pm in the Library January 18. Travels in the Auvergne. TALK, with colour slides, by JACK BRIDLE and EDA COLLINS.Tea at 4.30 pm. SPES New Year Party SLurday, January 10, 1987. 7.00 to 10.30 pm in the Library at Conway Hall. Food, Drink and Entertainment. Vegetarians and teetotallers will be catered for. Price: £2.50 (in advance); £3 at the door. For Concerts: see separate programme leaflet. 2 Ethical Record, January 1987 The Age-Long Conflict of Human Ideals H. J. BLACKHAM Summary of the Lecture on Sunday, November 9, 1986 FOR THIS SURVEY, I ASSIMILATE ALL HUMAN IDEALS TO TWO that are polar opposites, those that are earth-centred and those that are heaven-centred. There is much fudging and budging on the division: "all this and heaven too"; and the many (perhaps most) who hang on "perhaps". That won't do; I want to force the issue. They are mutually exclusive, and a choice has to be made, a choice to live by. Of course, in such global terms, these ideals are vast and vague. Heaven- centred : Nirvana or the Kingdom of God? At the highest level of generality, there is what has been called the Perennial Philosophy because it is re- current, the pole to which all "right thinking" returns. This prescribes "non- attachment", a turning away from the world and all temporal things to focus on and become identified with what is immortal and eternal. This is what "heaven-centred" essentially means: "Alienation". I remem- ber a remark of a liberal theologian, that Christians should "sit loose to civilization". That is the general word for the earth-centred ideal, "Civiliza- tion", with which this lecture is primarily concerned. Civilization as an ideal begs the question. Babylon, one of the most advanced of its time, was the "Whore of Babylon" to the Children of Israel, a people of the desert. There is a distinction between a civilization and a culture : every community with a common way of life has a culture; a culture Continued from page one attention to the many thought- Conway Memorial Lecture (the provoking ideas expressed in our 61st on May 23, 1985), he states: few pages this month. If some of them stimulate your response (in "Part of the complex make-up thoughts or actions) let us know of human personality is indeed this ability to stand apart in detachment soon and we can return to publish- from all that is there and from all ing more from readers again during that I have been. The question is the next few months. about the T that enjoys this ability. Meanwhile we shall limit our Either it is nominal, the mere own comment and contribution to awareness of existence, self-con- the thought: sciousness; or it is an active agent, We must, all of us, ensure an furnished with native abilities and alternation between thought and with what has been acquired during action. We should constantly a spell of life in a particular society of the time. In that case, it is the clarify our ideas, but never historically formed idiosyncratic neglect to act. CLARIFYING LEIF self, a temporal product, like all IDEAS is a function for us in the existents, not an independent visi- South Place Ethical Society. tant untainted by human experi- ACTION is for us to carry out in- ence. As self-consciousness, it is dividually (and/or in any organi- nothing else. There is no escape sations we may wish to associate route this way, or any way, from with). the temporality of the self". Copies of the text are available *On pages 14 and 15 of The Way from the Secretary, SPES at Con- I Think text of Harold Blackham's way Hall, price 50 pence a copy. Ethical Record, January 1987 3 may be advanced enough for its achievements to be recognized as a distinct civilization. Greece is singular in having claimed universality for its culture. The Greeks thought of civilization as the step by step cultural advance of the human race. Isocrates said of Athens: "So far has our city distanced the rest of mankind in thought and speech that her pupils have become the teachers of the rest of the world; and she has brought it about that the name 'Hellenes' is applied rather to those that share our culture than to those who share a common blood (Panegyricus)". This singular claim of a culture to universality, as distinct from a religion, was re-inforced by Rome at the time of Augustus, inspired by Virgii : Romanitas acknowledged and developed Hellas. I want to trace the historical development of this ideal of the civilization of the human race from this beginning in classical Greece, disentangled from confusion with religious assumptions and aspirations. The Age-long Division Anticipated in Greek Culture Ancient Greece of course was not a nation-State. There were hundreds of fiercely independent city-states. So that there was ample room for the development of violent contrasts within Greece, such as Athens and Sparta as prototypes of an open society and a totalitarian State. In conceptions of the way things are, there developed the opposition between Materialism and Idealism. Although there was this range of difference, political and philosophical, there was a common culture mani- fested in the Greek language and in their rich inheritance of myths, and actively in the Panhellenic festivals, of which there were four, with the Olympic Games the most famous. These were festivals of the arts as well as of athletic games, whose victors were celebrated with songs and statues.