Ethical Record The Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol. 106 No. 1 £1.50 Jan-Feb, 2001 AN AGENDA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY THE ETHICS OF CITIZENSHIP On 14 December 2000 at Conway Hall, the 74th Conway Memorial Lecture entitled Ethics and Citizenship - A New Agenda for the Twentyfirst Century was delivered, beautifully and wittily, by the eminent writer on and professor of politics, Bernard Crick. Professor Crick was introduced by Gabby Rowberry of the Council for Education in World Citizenship. Photo: Martin Harris Gabby also chairs the Coalition for Conway Memorial Lectureh Emeritus Professor Citizenship, whose members are Bernard Crick and Chainnan Gabby Rowberrv at Conway Hall on the 14 December 2000. working with Professor Crick to implement the new citizenship order in education. The audience consisted of keenly attentive members of the Society and the general public, some of whom were former students of Professor Crick. Professor Crick set out five principles which, he felt, underlie the curriculum of the citizenship order. They were: freedom (without which we won't know what other people's moral views were); toleration (I accept you, as a person, but not all your views and practices as being beyond criticism); fairness (preferable to 'the rule of law' - are the laws themselves just?), respect for truth (not truth as such); respect for reasoning (do not respect those who do not give reasons). For those whose appetite may have been whetted by the above themes and would like to hear Professor Crick's exposition in full, a recording of the lecture will be played as part of the Ethical Society's Sunday programme on 25 March 2001. THE ABORTION LAW STRUGGLE Diane illunday 3 R.M. HARE'S PRESCRIPTION Chris Bratcher 9 CHASING THE HARE: SEARLE & GEACH Chris Bratcher 14 ORIGINS OF GENIUS - Book Review Leslie Jones 18 DARWIN'S BLACK BOX - Book Review Roy Silson 21 PAT POTTLE MEMORIAL AT CONWAY HALL Barbara Smoker 23 ETHICAL IRONY Jennifer Jeynes 23 ETHICAL SOCIETY EVENTS 24 SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY . Conway Hall Humanist Centre • 25 Red Lion Square, London WCIR 4RL. Tel: 020 7242 8034 Fax: 020 7242 8036 website: www.ethicalsoc.org.uk email: [email protected] Officers Chairman of the GC: Terry Mullins Hon. Rep of the GC: Don Liversedge Registrar: Donald Rooum Editor, Ethical Record: Norman Bacrac SPES Staff Administrative Secretary to the Society: Marina Ingham Tel: 020 7242 8034 LibrarianIProgramme Coordinator: Jennifer Jeynes. Tel: 020 7242 8037 Operations Manager: Frances Hanlon. Tel: 020 7242 8033 Lettings Manager: Peter Vlachos. For Hall bookings: Tel: 020 7242 8032 New Members Hyman Frankel, London SE17; Simon Hardman, Chorlton, Manchester; John James, London SE13. SPES MEMBERS OPEN DISCUSSION MEETING, 25 FEBRUARY 2001 At 3pm on 25 February 2001, the General Committee invites members of the Ethical Society to engage in informal discussion on any matters of concern to do with the management of the Society and Conway Hall. RUSSIAN HUMANIST VISITS LONDON Victor Shchekochikhin, of the Moscow branch of the Russian Humanist Society, visited London for a fortnight in January. He came with his wife, Irina, and children Maxim (11) and Anna (10). Besides SPES, Victor had talks with all the Humanist organisations here: IHEU, RPA, BHA and the NSS. He assisted in the production of the 1993 the Russian Constitution. now wishes to encourage every citizen to take an active part in the social life of the country, which was not possible under communism, where one could not say what one thought. Victor believes strongly in the value of international contacts and would welcome visitors to Moscow, where he is organising a conference in April 2001 on the 40th anniversary of the first man in space. SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY CONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRE 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Reg. Charity No. 251396 Founded in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement whose aims are: the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism, the cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in relevant fields. We invite to membership those who reject supernatural creeds and are in sympathy with our aims. At Conway Hall the the programme includes Sunday lectures, discussions, evening courses and the renowned South Place Sunday Concerts of chamber music. The Society maintains a Humanist Reference Library. The Society's journal, Ethical Record, is issued ten times a year. The annual subscription is £18. (£12 if a full-time student, unwaged or over 65). 2 Ethical Record, Jan-Feb, 2001 THE PERILS & PLEASURES OF HUMANIST CAMPAIGNING: THE ABORTION LAW STRUGGLE Diane Munday Lecture to the Ethical Society, 3 December 2000 In 1967 when standing for election to Hertfordshire County Council, my Tory opponents were out on the pavements the night before with posters and loud hailers declaring `she is anti-Christ and pro-abortion'; indeed in 1969 when I was appointed a Justice of the Peace, the local newspaper had headlines on the front page to much the same effect. That, I suppose (except for the fact that I am pro-choice but not and have never been pro-abortion - an important difference that the anti abortion lobby has never been able or, more likely, willing to recognise) just about sums my life up from around 1960 to 1990. Looking back - and preparing this talk has provided me with an unexpectedly vivid trip down memory lane; apart from the small matters of running a home, caring for a husband and bringing up three small sons, campaigning for a liberal abortion law and promoting Humanism dominated those three decades of my life. However this talk is very different from the thousands of others I have given. It is somewhat ironic, after 40 years of stonewalling attempts to write about me personally, that now - among friends - I am talking about ME. I have always insisted that it is the subject that matters and have deplored the cult of the personality and here I am about to deliver what my notes suggest is a highly egotistical monologue! Abortion Law Reformand Humanism Linked Certainly in the early days. abortion law reform and Humanism were closely linked (to my sorrow, less so today). You did not have to be a humanist to believe in reproductive choice - a number of religious people campaigned with us and many actively supported us (even more actually had abortions but that is a different story) I never met anybody calling themselves a humanist/rationalist/freethinker who did not believe the law should be changed to abolish the 1861 prohibition on 'all attempts to procure miscarriage'. Indeed, resolutions passed at the conferences of various of our kindred bodies helped considerably to swell the numbers we were truthfully able to claim supported our standpoint. Interestingly, the first meeting to discuss abortion that I ever attended was here in this building when Harold Blackham spoke on the subject in what then was the Small Hall. I would have been very heartened if, at that time, I had known how far society would move - both in adopting Humanist ideas and stances as well as in accepting legal abortion as a humane necessity - in the subsequent forty years Equally I would have been disappointed if I had been able to foresee the continuing high number of abortions as, naively at that time, I thought, easy access to contraception and education about its use-was all that was needed to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Also I suppose, it is true that I am disappointed about the lack of ground gained by Humanism in general in this increasingly godless society. Conversely, the opposition to legalised abortion came almost 100% from those believing human life to begin at conception, to be God given and therefore sacred. Ethical Record, Jan-Feb. 2001 3 If I were asked to sum up my memories in one word, the word that comes immediately to mind is IRRATIONALITY - with HYPOCRISY closely behind - and I fear there is still a lot of both around. However this is not going to be an academic treatise on irrationality but a series of anecdotes which I suspect (and hope) will entertain rather than enlighten you. My Abortion The story really starts when I was offered thalidomide during my third pregnancy - although there was a prologue. In the fifties 1 had known a young mother of three who had died as•the result of a back street abortion. During that pregnancy I came to the strong conclusion that, had I taken the drug, I would have wished to have an abortion rather than knowingly increase the risks of having a handicapped child. So I joined the moribund Abortion Law Reform Association. When faced with a fourth pregnancy in four years I decided I would end it - but I survived because I could wield a cheque book in Harley St. As I could not thank God I vowed in my muzzy state to spend the rest of my life campaigning for those who did not have a cheque book, or information. I went to my first public speaking engagement in fear and trembling. This was the Townswomen's Guild, an audience of elderly ladies in hats and gloves. I admitted I had recently bought an abortion. The talk was met in absorbed silence but I did not sense hostility. At teaiime one by one these ladies came to me and said words to the effect - 1 have never told anybody before but 1 had an abortion in the 30s. Indeed some years later my mother told me that she had nursed her sister who had been to the backstreets in the 30s when she was the only bread winner in the family.