As a teenager, I increasingly had questions about religion to which I found no good answers.

Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.

I just think that the skepticism about truth has almost completely flipped - from being something associated with generally left-leaning progressives to being something which is a tool of right-wing populists and demagogues. I think a lot of those people writing books ten years ago would now think those books are no longer needed, they've kind of been vindicated.

Christmas is a rare occasion when we are reminded that we have obligations to people we did not choose to be related to, and that love is not just a spontaneous feeling but something we sometimes really have to work at, with people we may not even much like.

If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.

I am very Aristotelian in approach - not in detail - so I always find I'm saying things that get people frustrated like 'It's a matter of balance and judgement'. To a lot of philosophers these are terrible words because they're admitting of vagueness and uncertainty. The more I've done philosophy, the more I've become convinced that that is the way it is.

Being a good neighbour is about compassion, which is as warm-blooded as justice is cool-headed.