Welcome to my site!
Browse the free notes for students, philosophical questions, books on philosophy, religion and ethics, and examples of my travel photography. Click any book cover for more information.
A single click, from the index, will take you straight to particular notes, books, subjects and arguments.
My motto as I grow older..
Whatever you keep dies with you; whatever you share lives on.
'He is a thinker: that means he knows how to make things simpler than they are.'
Nietzsche The Gay Science, book 3, aphorism 189
I think Nietzsche was right. Philosophy is an impossible task! Whatever you try to understand is always beyond your grasp! But it's also an addiction, so I continue to write...
My next 
book...
The word 'God' appears to be evaporating, even among more thoughtful and open-minded believers, but there is a danger that it will take a valuable cultural and moral legacy with it. Can a modest and thoughtful dose of atheism come to its rescue? Should it try to save God from the clutches of the superstitious who take the idea literally? Atheism can be positive, life-affirming and morally serious. Might it just do the trick?
So what can 'God' mean today, in a secular and humanist society? Is it inevitably linked to supernatural ideas or to religion? If both disappear, will it still have meaning?
I'm doing battle with this book, determined to be absolutely honest. As the title suggests, I think that a healthy look at how atheism and the idea of God impact on one another can prevent both from becoming caricatures.
Now scheduled for publication in early 2025!
Click here for more information and to read an article related to this subject, originally published in The Philosopher magazine.
My latest photography page...
There are some places that stay with you long after your visit. Lower Antelope Canyon is one of them. The colours and swirl of the rock face around and above you is quite stunning. Even if you've already seen many photographs already, there's nothing like making your way along the narrow floor of the canyon, looking up towards blue sky that is sliced into bite-size pieces by the jutting swirls of rock. Did water really achieve all this? Astonishing!
Thinking of self-publishing?
I run Brimstone Press, a self-publishing, not-for-profit cooperative, helping you to self-publish in an environment of shared expertise and support. Take a look!
Nietzsche craved the high alps; Heidegger his mountain hut. Where do you go for inspiration?
A place? A person? A career? An aspiration? Something to work towards or escape from? What is 'home' for you? This book asks the most fundamental of all questions: Where do I belong?
Starting with Nietzsche's challenge to find meaning in a directionless universe, it explores the way we map out our personal worlds to create a sense of home.
From the orientation of temples in the ancient Near East, to the danger of being treated as no more than a customer or voter in an atomised world, it examines the importance of personal space and what we do with it.
Available from Bookshops or Amazon, from only £1.99 / $2.99
Why 'Philosophy and Ethics'?
I believe it is important to explore fundamental existential questions. Who am I? What is the purpose of life? What should I do? How can I find and promote happiness? How should I relate to those around me and the natural world? Such questions are crucial, urgent and universal, whether they are asked from a religious perspective or a secular one.
I take a broadly secular and humanist approach, but have been, at different times, both an ordained Anglican and a practising Buddhist. If you think that's weird, just read 'About Me'!
In June 1916, two remarkable religious thinkers found themselves on opposite sides of the battle of Verdun; for both the experience was uniquely formative, but they responded to it very differently. It transformed their ideas of God, their careers and their lives.
A German Lutheran chaplain and a French Jesuit stretcher bearer, although separated by only a few hundred yards of mud and barbed wire, tried to cope with, and make sense of, that horror of death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. They – Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – reflect a century of thinking about religion, politics, humanism, existential angst and the global future.
It's the story of two men and their struggles with religious belief, but also of the whole way in which ideas about God and religion have been shaped and re-shaped during the last hundred years.
Paperback £7.99 / $11.50 | Kindle £1.99 / $2.99
Click here for more information and a sample.
Fancy a trip to Bali? Click the image to see some of my travel photography, or here for the whole range of destinations.
