An Antidote to Confusion
This book comes at an important moment not just in Australia’s cultural history, but in the history of the Western world. Denis White is a highly knowledgeable and skilled philosopher but, without insulting philosophy, he is more than a philosopher. He has not only been an academic, he has set up successful businesses, and he’s a strategic planner of considerable skill. When I was working in the Howard government, Denis’s experience advising Malcolm Fraser enabled him to make a proposal to me when I was Minister for Education about how Australia should pursue international education. As director of the Prime Minister’s office, he witnessed the exercise of power at the highest levels in Australia and learnt an enormous amount about the matters covered in this book.
White avoids jargon, picking up the language that people naturally use in their endeavours, and bringing that into philosophy. He has a gift for using common language to convey important thoughts. He writes,…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins