Sections
Magazine
Latest Issue

Why we need to reform the Crown, the rich history of Chinese people in the UK, why governments can’t just keep borrowing and a profile of Cressida Dick. Plus Edward Said’s confusion, how to fix government sleaze and we ask whether meritocracy has had its day.

Read Now Or Checkout the archive
Previous
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
January/February 2021
Events
Next Event

Rule of Law 3: Managing global supply chains in a post-Covid world—current challenge or future opportunity?

Previous
What next for pensions? Why the 2020s are the crunch decade—discussion 2
Watch: How do we stop a generation from sleepwalking into retirement?
Watch: Homes for all—what new social and affordable housing can do for Britain
To the archive
Podcast
Latest Episode

The Prospect Interview #179: What makes a good political leader?

Previous
The Prospect Interview #178: Governing in the age of populism
The Prospect Interview #177: The trials of Narendra Modi
The Prospect Interview #176: The battle for the Arctic
To the archive
Arts & Books Magazine Bantam Press Books & literature secularism sociologist

Morality without God

A new wave of secular books has challenged religion’s claim to supply meaning and morality. Simon Blackburn reflects on the root of human values

By Simon Blackburn  
March 23, 2011
April 2011

The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for how we live now Ed George Levine, (Princeton University Press, £24.95)

The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris, (Bantam Press, £20.00)

When the sociologist Max Weber wrote of the disenchantment of the modern world in the late 19th and early 20th century, he struck a loud and resonant chord. Just look at the dog-eat-dog, bureaucratic, soulless world we live in. Ugh! How pleasant to dream of something better: a magical world unfolding in providential ways: perplexing, perhaps, and sometimes sad, but in the end benign, good and safe. How nice as well to be…

Register today to continue reading

You’ve hit your limit of three articles in the last 30 days. To get seven more, simply enter your email address below.

You’ll also receive our free e-book Prospect’s Top Thinkers 2020 and our newsletter with the best new writing on politics, economics, literature and the arts.

Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with newsletters, subscription offers and other relevant information.

Click here to learn more about these purposes and how we use your data. You will be able to opt-out of further contact on the next page and in all our communications.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to letters@prospect-magazine.co.uk

Simon Blackburn

Simon Blackburn is a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and a Research Professor in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

More stories by Simon Blackburn

More From Prospect