Dulwich and the Queen's Picture Galleries - David Wilkie and Winifred Knights

Dulwich and The Queen’s Picture Galleries – David Wilkie and Winifred Knights

One day in Dulwich, the next in Buckingham Palace (art gallery annexe). In Dulwich, the exhibition devoted to the rather marvellous Winifred Knights, whose small oeuvre of masterpieces is readily appreciated by the un-knowledgeable visitor. In the Queen’s Gallery, paintings by Scottish artists owned by the monarch – mainly 18^th and 19^th century works.

Misleading analogies in the Free Will Debate

Misleading Analogies in the Debate about Free Will

(There are many.)

To start with, some definitions and  working assumptions:

·      “Free Will”, in its classical sense, denotes the claim that, in important respects, human beings are ultimately responsible for their decisions, moral and other (but especially moral). It is “up to us” (and no other cause which isn’t us) whether we decide to A or to B. The existence of this faculty grounds moral responsibility.

A Young Officer's Letters Home in the Second World War

A Young Officer’s Letters Home in WW2

I’ve been going through a cache of letters that my father, Michael, wrote to his mother and father, mainly during the middle years of WW2 (1942-3). Michael was a career army officer, in the Royal Engineers. He was born in 1916; so was in his mid to late 20s in the early 1940s.

As will appear, Michael was keen to be “in action”, but was frustrated in that ambition for much of the War – but not in the end.