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Calibre Essay Prize 2026 - Now Open for Entries

Philosophy

The Nature of Social Laws by Robert Brown

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June 1986, no. 81
Margaret Coady reviews ‘The Nature of Social Laws’ by Robert Brown

Robert Brown’s interesting book makes it clear that the history of ideas is a more complex and tough-minded enterprise than popular sloganising in this area would suggest. Brown, who is Professorial Fellow in the History of Ideas unit at the Australian National University, concerned with two different concep­tions of the operation of the humane ‘sciences’. On the one side is the scientistic approach espoused by those inheritors of the Enlightenment who believe that there are laws of society just as there are laws of nature, and that the aims and methods of the social scientist should be similar to those of the natural scientist.

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Test-Tube Babies edited by William Walters and Peter Singer

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September 1982, no. 44
Brian Scarlett reviews 'Test-Tube Babies' edited by William Walters and Peter Singer

The Monash University team at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne has achieved great success in its endeavours to relieve infertility by the production of ‘test-tube babies’. This collection explains what goes on, discusses moral and legal problems relating to the programme, and gives a preview of what might lie ahead. The contributors include members of the medical team, their clients, and moral philosophers and theologians.

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The Sources of Hope edited by Ross Fizgerald

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June 1980, no. 21

In his introduction to this collection of essays the editor, Ross Fitzgerald, remarks: ‘Our age is not exactly brimming over with positive affirmation and joyful anticipation.’ One wonders whether or not there has ever been a period of human history which such an assertion would accurately describe, let alone whether this would be a particular occasion for celebration. After all what gives an aggressive advocate of military solutions to current political problems a certain degree of hope may well cause the pacificist the deepest despair. There is no unity and certainly no necessary common goal to what gives diverse groups and individuals their respective sources of hope and pessimism.

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