Category Archives: Philosophy & Ethics

REWRITING COLONIALISM

February 26, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This review of Nigel Biggar’s Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning was published in the Observer, 19 February 2023. In 1857, in the wake of the “Indian Mutiny”, a British officer, Lt George Cracklow, described in a letter home what happened to captured rebels. “The prisoners were marched up to the guns… and lashed to the muzzles,” he wrote. “The guns exploded… I could hardly see for the smoke for about 2 seconds when down came something with a thud about 5 yards […]

Categories: Culture & Books, History, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: british empire, colonialism, indian mutiny, john stuart mill, nigel biggar, racism, slavery

MIMIC, BULLSHITTER AND MACHINE

December 15, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on ChatGPT and the possibilities and limitations of AI, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 11 December 2022, under the headline “ChatGPT can tell jokes, even write articles. But only humans can detect its fluent bullshit”. As the capabilities of natural language processing technology continue to advance, there is a growing hype around the potential of chatbots and conversational AI systems. One such system, ChatGPT, claims to be able to engage in natural, human-like conversation and even […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: ai, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, consciousness, human nature, literalness, meaning

UNIVERSALISM, RELATIVISM AND QATAR

December 1, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on universalism, relativism and the debate about human rights in Qatar, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 27 November 2022, under the headline “It can be hard to distinguish the cultural claims of right and left. Just look at Qatar”. “Everyone has their beliefs and cultures. We welcome and respect that. All we ask is that other people do the same for us.” So insists Yasir al-Jamal, deputy general secretary of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Sport • Tags: cultural imperialism, cultural relativism, enlightenment, fifa, herder, imperialism, qatar, qatar world cup, racism, universalism

ON POLITICS AND HUMAN FLOURISHING

October 27, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Beveridge Report and the idea of human flourishing, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 23 October 2022, under the headline “If this chaos does not make us rethink our idea of the good society, whatever will?” “Out of intermittent labour spring our gravest woes. It produces in the labourer intermittent energy; the off-days become habitual; with indolence comes intemperance; with uncertainty of employment comes recklessness about the future; from these result pauperism and the […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: beveridge report, communitarianism, community, free market, human flourishing, libertarianism, poor laws, society, undeserving poor, welfare state, william beveridge

FANTASY FEARS AND REAL ISSUES

June 22, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on machine sentience and the real problems with AI, was my Observer column on 19 June 2022. It was published under the headline “Forget sentience… the worry is that AI copies human bias”. ‘I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.” So claimed a Google software program, creating a bizarre controversy over the past week in AI circles and beyond. The programme is called LaMDA, an acronym for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, a project run by […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: ai bias, artificial intelligence, blake lemoine, facial recognition, google, lamda, predictive policing, privacy, sentience, surveillance, timnit gebru

ON THE ASSISTED DYING DEBATE

October 26, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the complexities of the assisted dying debate, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 24 October 2021, under the headline “Claiming a monopoly on truth and decency is no way to win the assisted dying debate”. A man is standing on the parapet of a bridge. He is about to jump. What should you do? Most people would agree that the moral act would be to talk to him to try to persuade him not to. […]

Categories: Britain, Human, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: assisted dying, baroness meacher, death, netherlands, ronald dworkin, sanctity of life, slippery slope, suicide

OMAR LITTLE AND MORAL COMPLEXITY

September 14, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the significance of Michael K Williams, Omar Little and The Wire, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 12 September 2021, under the headline “In an age too given to moral certainty, let’s remember The Wire’s Omar as a study in complexity”. It’s not often that a shotgun-wielding thief and killer comes to be seen as possessing a moral core. But then it’s not often that you have a character like Omar Little. Or an actor […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: baltimore, black lives matter, cop shows, david simon, left behind, michael k williams, morality, omar little, television, the wire, trumpism

COVID AND THE MYTHS OF EAST AND WEST

August 10, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on why there is no simple divide between “Eastern” and “Western” values, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 8 August 2021, under the headline “Can Covid death rates be reduced to a clash of values? It’s not so simple”. “The fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of ‘Asian values’.” “Asian culture’s emphasis on obedience to authority could play a role in explaining how successful public health measures have been in the region.” “The massive […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: asian values, china, communitarianism, confucianism, covid 19, east asia, east v west, eastern philosophy, individualism, japan, liberalism, olympics, south korea, taiwan, tokyo olympics, trust, western philosophy

ORIENTALISM AND AHISTORICISM

May 2, 2021 by Kenan Malik

I wrote a short piece for my Observer column on Edward Said, Hannah Arendt and James Baldwin and why I have come to appreciate them more despite (or perhaps because of) the contradictions in their arguments. I thought it might also be useful as a counterpoint, to publish a short part of my original critique of Said’s Orientalism from my 1996 book The Meaning of Race. It is part of a much longer critique, but gets to the essence of […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: aijaz ahmed, edward said, enlightenment, essentializing, greek philosophy, orientalism, west

TRANSLATION AND IDENTITY

March 9, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the debate over the translation of Amanda Gorman’s poetry, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Home Office’s inflexibility over British citizenship.) It was published on 7 March 2021, under the headline “Lost in translation: the dead end of dividing the world on identity lines”. In 1768, the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder paid a visit to the French city of Nantes. “I am getting to know the French language […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Language, Multiculturalism, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: amanda gorman, identity politics, invisible man, marieke lucas rijneveld, racism, ralph ellison, stay in your lane, translation

INEQUALITY AND POLITICAL DIVIDES

March 3, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on perceptions of inequality in Britain, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 28 February 2021, under the headline “The left/right divide still exists. But it’s struggling to escape the lure of identity politics”. First, the good news. Britons see inequality as a major problem and divide broadly along traditional political lines in their attitudes towards it. Then, the bad news. Britons are also inclined to see inequalities as driven by individual behaviour as much as […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: bobby duffy, brexit, british politics, conservative party, covid 19, identity politics, individualism, inequality, labour party, pandemic, racism, reluctant individualism

LESS ABOUT MONEY THAN ABOUT PRIORITIES

January 12, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the failure to tackle inequality, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 10 January 2020, under the headline “Lives are falling apart. Enough talk about inequality, it’s now time to act”. Inequality. Everyone agrees it’s bad. Everyone agrees that the pandemic and lockdowns have exacerbated inequality. And everyone agrees that something must be done to reduce it. So, what has been done? Nearly a year into the pandemic, and at the start of the third national lockdown […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics

RESPECT AND TOLERANCE, PEOPLE AND IDEAS

December 15, 2020 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the changing meanings of respect and tolerance, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the revelations at the Grenfell inquiry.) It was published on 13 December 2020, under the headline “Ideas can be tolerated without being respected. The distinction is key”. Should Cambridge University academics and students “tolerate” or “respect” the views of others with which they might disagree? Should we tolerate Millwall fans booing players taking the knee? Should gender-critical feminists who argue for […]

Categories: Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics, Women • Tags: cambridge university, censorship, football, free speech, les ferdinand, millwall, racism, respect, salil tripathi, taking the knee, tolerance, transgender, twitter

WORTHY BOTH OF CELEBRATION AND CONDEMNATION

September 22, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about the legacy of David Hume, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.) It was published on 20 September 2020, under the headline “David Hume was a complex man. Erasing his name is too simplistic a gesture”. “Learn, Mr Hume, to prize the blessings of Liberty and Education, for… had you been born and bred a slave, your Genius, whatever you may think of it, would never […]

Categories: History, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: david hume, david hume tower, edinburgh university, enlightenment, jonathan israel, racism, radical enlightenment, slavery

WHEN MONUMENTS FALL

September 12, 2020 by Kenan Malik

. This is the opening section of my essay in the New York Review of Books‘ NYR Daily on the statues debate. Read the full article on NYR Daily. “We stand today at the national center to perform something like a national act—an act which is to go into history.” So said the great nineteenth-century former slave and staunch abolitionist Frederick Douglass at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., in 1876. “That we are here […]

Categories: History, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: abraham lincoln, black lives matter, boris johnson, confederate statues, edward colston, emancipation memorial, frederick douglass, iconoclasm, racism, statues, toppling statues, winston churchill