Philosophy of freedom

While many philosophers deal with the abstract, AC Grayling tackles the complexities of real life, writes Shane Hegarty

While many philosophers deal with the abstract, AC Grayling tackles the complexities of real life, writes Shane Hegarty

You would not want to meet AC Grayling while in a lazy frame of mind. To say that the English philosopher churns out books, articles and commentary would be derogatory if it wasn't for the fact that his writing appears effortlessly articulate and his books pick through their subjects while steering clear of the boggy marshes of academia.

Grayling - the A is for Anthony - is in Dublin to discuss his latest book, Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights That Made the Modern West. It is the third of four he has published this year, having previously added to the slew of atheistic books with Against All Gods, and also expounding on the Philosophy of Thought.

"I see it as a process of trying to make a contribution to this great conversation that we must keep on having in order to make some sense of ourselves and our world," he says. "And there's such a sense of urgency about it that I feel like an elephant pregnant with any number of more books I want to write about all sorts of topics. And there's an old saying, 'Work while you have light'. "

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This freedom to write about what he wants, when he wants, underlies Towards the Light- a history of personal liberty, taking the Reformation as a starting point but taking in political and civil liberties up to the present day. He posits that we can either take the view that the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the high point of freedom that will never again be matched, or we can attempt to hold on to liberties that are in danger of being eroded in the current political climate.

As Grayling details in his book, many people died in some terrible ways for us to enjoy the kind of freedoms that 400 years ago were unthinkable to anyone but "lords and the highest levels of the clergy". Grayling argues that the West needs to have more confidence in our culture, and to stop thinking that "we're to blame for the fact Islamists hate us and want to do us harm. My point was that you've got to stand up to these things and not make the mistake of giving up some of these things cavalierly just because of the present situation."

He is, it's important to point out, a member of the World Economic Forum's Council for Western-Muslim Understanding, so cannot be painted as some sort of right-wing reactionary, but he makes ominous points about a possible future in which, for instance, a demographic shift takes Europe towards Muslim dominance. "If nothing else changes, if they don't just assimilate our values and if in that time sharia law is general in Europe, people then will be saying isn't it extraordinary that in the year 2000 women were allowed to go to school and run around in bikinis half naked. And that thought shows you how the way we live is very fragile."

HE SUGGESTS THAT European countries need to look towards the likes of Canada and Australia, which "set the bar pretty high" for immigrants. Otherwise, the cultural crises currently hitting a country such as the Netherlands will continue to grow. "This warm-hearted country and its people is now afraid and has become conservative and hostile towards the immigrant community, because it let this thing grow up in its midst, which has hit it in the face. And it illustrates the great paradox of liberalism - with a small l - which is that you tolerate and you allow the intolerant to grow up in your midst. Where do you draw the line?"

Cultural fortitude is required, he believes. "They have to sign up and accept that here we do things differently, that we draw cartoons here, or whatever, that they might find offensive, but offence is not a crime."

In the current climate, Grayling says, the West is setting itself back by putting personal security ahead of personal liberty, even though all the ID cards and new laws will not stop somebody one day setting off a dirty bomb in the middle of London. "Security is not the first priority, our individual liberties are, our way of life is, which is precisely what is despised and attacked by people who don't like the fact that our girls go to school and wear bikinis. But of course we are achieving their victory for them by doing some of the things that they would do if they were in charge."

His broader arguments could surely be used as a justification for the invasion of Iraq, and it is, he admits, a "difficult" question. "If they had done more of the right things in Iraq it would have been a justification of an interesting doctrine - that of intervention, one of really making a positive difference," he believes. "There is also the hubristic question of whether we can impose freedom and democracy. In a way it all sounds so hollow now because what's happened has set back the prospect of helping people to set up groups to challenge tyrannies, in Burma for example, by decades."

On the subject of personal privacy, does the surveillance culture which communities now readily sign up for, mixed with the delight people find in splashing their personal details and desires all over the internet, not show how privacy is not as revered as he might say? No, he argues. CCTV has public benefits, but no one would want cameras in the bedroom. As for those on MySpace and Facebook, they are a "significant minority", many of whom will grow to regret being so open.

There's an added complication. "A lot of people are fighting freedom. They want other people to tell them what to do, to make decisions for them, to protect them. They're confused by the agony of choice. They would like all the answers to be neat. That's why religion survives, because in 10 minutes you can explain to somebody the Christian story, whereas physics takes years to understand and leaves us with loads of open-ended questions."

Freedom, he observes, "is risky and frightening sometimes. But it is the absolute condition of me making that good life that there must be real privacy. Even in my marriage, there must be some things that you keep to yourself, because they might hurt someone else. I have to have privacy even in my intimate relationships. Otherwise you might as well give up and have an electrode in your head and let the government hear all your thoughts. Of course, the church did put that electrode in people's heads and called it confession."

INTERVIEW OVER, HE later takes a detour at the Mahon Tribunal, where Bertie Ahern is engaged in his own confessional of sorts. "I was there only very briefly," Grayling says later, "but in the brief period things did not look good for Mr Ahern. The most important impressions, however, were these: it was a case of democracy in action, elected leaders being held to account by the nation - deeply heartening and even thrilling.

"And secondly, I walked into the room where the tribunal was being held without being stopped or searched or questioned by police or security men, a mark of the peace and good security situation in Ireland, and a rare thing: where else in our troubled world would that have been possible? On both counts the tribunal seemed to me a great testament to Ireland. Mr Ahern was a testament to politicians."

Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights That Made the Modern West is published by Bloomsbury