Among the thinkers who weighed in on the theory of the social contract, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) took the position that freedom is good, but security is better. Now we must ask whether the likes of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are justified in their efforts to expose far-reaching government surveillance operations, or whether intelligence agencies are just taking the necessary safety measures to respond to an increasingly volatile world. This animated short video boils down the complex question of freedom vs security to its most essential, asking what are we prepared to give up to feel safe.
What are we willing to sacrifice to feel safe?
6 February 2015
videoEthics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
videoHuman rights and justice
How we confuse the ‘intended uses of technology with the actual uses’
11 minutes
videoInformation and communication
The information age traffics in speed. To adapt to it wisely, we must slow down
5 minutes
videoHuman rights and justice
Free speech is vital to human flourishing, but it’s in a decade-long slump
5 minutes
videoFuture of technology
Tech companies shroud their algorithms in secrecy. It’s time to pry open the black box
4 minutes
videoPolitical philosophy
Beyond the veil – what rules would govern John Rawls’s ‘realistic Utopia’?
6 minutes
videoVirtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
videoPolitical philosophy
Sartre and the existential choice: ‘In fashioning myself, I fashion humanity’
2 minutes
videoPolitics and government
Aldous Huxley on the dangers of being ‘caught by surprise by our own advancing technology’
6 minutes