Tony Wilkinson

We find questions about values particularly challenging, not least because we no longer believe in any kind of universal basis for values. There are many different religions offering different answers but obviously none is universally accepted and no clear secular answer is available. Into this vacuum pours the destructive idea that human life is about economic organisation, an idea found either in forms deriving from Marx or in the current right wing ideology known as neoliberalism.

A society which has no way of talking about, let alone deciding upon, important value questions is a society in deep trouble. Individuals who have no way to consider values are likely to find themselves driven at best by consumerism. In order to make sense of our own lives and find a common basis on which we can at least approach such questions we have no choice but to consider some of the oldest and most difficult philosophical questions, about what our lives are about and what might form the foundation of our values.

This is what my books are about. I think everyone at some stage asks themselves about what matters most to them, perhaps in the form of what is the right thing to do in a difficult situation, perhaps which side to take in a dispute, perhaps in the most general form of how to live a fulfilling life. To such questions other forms of knowledge, even science, can't provide answers. They are questions about values and they lie at the heart of our lives and our society.

Read more at www.tonywilkinson.com