Category: Class-article
EDITORIAL: The Abuse of Power (2)
The common saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely has never struck me as quite right. Certainly we see the corrupt employment of power, perhaps never so dramatical [...]
Poetry by Ruzesky/Heighton/Brownlow/Valin/Rowe Michaels
Poets provide us with unique and insightful perspectives on matters of human importance. In a departure for Humanist Perspectives, we offer here some voices of poets on our theme of Abuse o [...]
Power, Love and Listening: an Observation of Shakespeare’s Drama
The urge to gain or hold onto power over other people is a prominent motive for the characters in Shakespeare’s plays, as it is in many – if not most – aspects of human life. Shakespeare’s k [...]
Does Donald Trump Read Shakespeare?
Donald Trump did not invent abuse of power. Four hundred years ago, the greatest of all writers recognized that the ways power is applied in human relationships is central to life, liberty a [...]
The Value of Studying Philosophy
The development office of my alma mater contacted me early last March about leaving the university some money in my will. My undergraduate adventure was decades ago and I’m nearing retiremen [...]
Some Observations on Machiavelli’s The Prince
We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except m [...]
How to Find Abuses of Power
When we think about abuse of power, most of us, including me, find ourselves in the position of the Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981, Potter Stewart, wh [...]
THE ROBERT LATIMER CASE: TEN COMMON MISREPRESENTATIONS
Vocal minorities have at times served a useful social purpose in bringing injustices to public attention, as in the Black Lives Matter movement. At other times, however, they have, caused gr [...]
In the News… The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loose [...]
EDITORIAL: A Fragile Tapestry
Constitutions represent the aspirations of a nation, delineating the basic legal principles that ought to guide it. But what happens when a political leader chooses to ignore this estimable [...]
The Cubist Othello
A noted film critic writes about one of Shakespeare’s best known abusers of power. The play, Yacowar argues, is based upon the collision of multiple perspectives, as was the Cubist art movem [...]
Power makes the world go round
“O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
― William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure [...]
Do Dogs Have Souls?
Originally printed in HP #150: Mike Matthews takes a light-hearted look at an issue that seems to vex some non-humanists. The subject is raised again by one of our letter writers. [...]
The Somalia Affair
An inside look at a dark episode in the history of the Canadian military, and the Canadian government. Power was abused actively by our troops in Somalia, and passively by our government. [...]
Believing Women
We want to believe women who make claims about being abused by more powerful men, but the notion of always doing so is philosophically problematic. [...]