Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

SUBSCRIBE NOW

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Books

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Brian J. Collins critiques Yuval Noah Harari’s ethical and political incoherence.

The foundational principles of representative democracy are under attack globally. In the US we are still dealing with the fallout from the Trump administration and the blatantly anti-democratic sentiments that were manifested in the January 6 Capitol attack. Globally, there are many further examples of democratic systems under stress, but there are also many more implicit and less extreme examples that demonstrate people’s distrust and antagonism towards democracy right now. When these sentiments crystalize into politically influential actions the pendulum swings towards stunningly fascistic and dictatorial policies and governments. Regardless of where each of us sits on the political spectrum, nobody wants to be governed by a dictator that they disagree with, but that’s always the danger with dictatorships.

…