Welcome to my site!
Browse the free notes for students, philosophical questions, and books on philosophy, religion and ethics, along with 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.
This site may feature philosophy and ethics, but for me just looking at natural wonders is a more immediate source of wisdom. So please take a look at the photography as well as the philosophical issues and notes.
My next book will be...
'God' is a strange word, standing for very different things. From the gods of Ancient Greeks to the philosophical quest for reality itself, and from its cultural legacy in literature, art and music to the existential questions it raises, 'God' has left a varied and ambiguous legacy. But 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?
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?
My latest 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. check
