Skip to main content

About Stephen Law

Overview

·   Public academic
·      Writer and speaker on a range of issues, academic and non-academic, for a wide variety of audiences - specialist and non-specialist
·      Authority on critical thinking and philosophy and their public application. Research interest in everyday irrationality and bullshit.

Public speaker and writer. Has appeared many times on TV and Radio (including episodes of Closer to Truth in the US). Has written or been interviewed for The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Mail on Sunday. The Sydney Morning Herald, The Times (book extract), Newsweek, Aeon, and New Scientist magazine.

Author of ten critically received popular non-fiction books, including:

·      Many best-selling introductions to philosophy including The Philosophy Gym
·      A Very Short Introduction to Humanism for Oxford University Press
·      Believing Bullshit - a book on irrationality and bullshit,
·      The War For Children's Minds, a book on raising good citizens, about which Philip Pullman said 'Should be read by every parent, every teacher, and every politician'.

Author of three successful non-fiction children's books - and an invited contributor to BBC Children in Need Story Collection.

Designed an online course for Oxford University based on one of his books - an introduction to Philosophy.

Organiser of many educational public events and debates in London and Oxford on Science, Reason, Ethics, and Religion, including at the Oxford Literary Festival (with many high profile speakers and academics including e.g. Lord Layard, Giles Fraser, Claire Fox, Professors Richard Dawkins and Heather Widdows)

Founding editor of the magazine THINK: Philosophy for Everyone, published by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Cambridge University Press.

Well-known advocate of the public importance of philosophy, and in particular its educational benefits for young people and to public life.

Producer of innovative educational materials, including a recent animation (with  265,000 views)

You can download my academic CV here.

Sample work

Some TV appearances (cut and paste address if link does not work): https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/stephen-law/profile



Debate on the existence of God with William Lane Craig at Westminster Central Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APfd7B3CEhI


Comments

Unknown said…
Dear Mr.Law,
I have read ur Humanism VSI book and wanted to leave a small comment based on my impression from the book. First of all, thank You for this readers experience. I read it during summer time in Greece, Rhodos, on the beach when not swimmimg...:)

In my opinion the efford made in the book (or by humanism itself , in your words) is trying so hard to distance from religion and all that is religious, that it somehow, beyond all reason, seems to become religion itself. I dont know why is that because logically it should just be now more precisely distinguished (and I know this is the reason why most of the book is dedicated to distancing itself from religious). It comes to my mind that it might be because it is only in contrast with religious and all values that religion established, that humanism arises. Why would there be so much effort put in distancing otherwise. As if the fenomenon that is the one most unvanted (religious life, rules, ethics) is given even more life and reality within humanist ideas itself. I know this was definately not the effect wanted and expected, but somehow there it is and it struck me most - even more, then the positive values that are also scatched in the book.

In conclusion all that arguments, all that efford against religious somehow fails to deliver the right positive attitude towards humanism, that I (having not read this book) considered something very near to me before. Despite this fact I am realy thankfull for an opportunity to read it. Thank you.


All the best
Sebastian Janota, Czech republic

Popular posts from this blog

Why I won't be voting Labour at the next General Election, not even to 'keep the Tories out'.

I have always voted Labour, and have often been a member of the Party, campaigning and canvassing for them. For what it’s worth, here’s my feeling about voting Labour next General Election:   1. When the left vote Labour after they move rightwards, they are encouraged to just move further right, to the point where they are now probably right of where e.g. John Major’s Tory party was. And each time the Tories go further right still. At some point we have got to stop fuelling this toxic drift to the right by making the Labour Party realise that it’s going to start costing them votes. I can’t think of anything politically more important than halting this increasingly frightening rightward slide. So I am no longer voting Labour. 2. If a new socialist party starts up, it could easily hoover up many of the 200k former LP members who have left in disgust (I’d join), and perhaps also pick up union affiliations. They could become the second biggest party by membership quite quickly. Our voting

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen

Aquinas on homosexuality

Thought I would try a bit of a draft out on the blog, for feedback. All comments gratefully received. No doubt I've got at least some details wrong re the Catholic Church's position... AQUINAS AND SEXUAL ETHICS Aquinas’s thinking remains hugely influential within the Catholic Church. In particular, his ideas concerning sexual ethics still heavily shape Church teaching. It is on these ideas that we focus here. In particular, I will look at Aquinas’s justification for morally condemning homosexual acts. When homosexuality is judged to be morally wrong, the justification offered is often that homosexuality is, in some sense, “unnatural”. Aquinas develops a sophisticated version of this sort of argument. The roots of the argument lie in thinking of Aristotle, whom Aquinas believes to be scientifically authoritative. Indeed, one of Aquinas’s over-arching aims was to show how Aristotle’s philosophical system is broadly compatible with Christian thought. I begin with a sketch of Arist