Education
University of Oxford. University of St Andrews.
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book
After Blair: David Cameron and the Conservative Tradition
(In David Cameron's review of the first edition of this bo...)
In David Cameron's review of the first edition of this book, he praised its 'road map for a sustained Conservative recovery' and is now following its prescription, leading to a successful Tory revival. Revised and significantly expanded this is the first book to consider Cameron and the Tories' future. Calling the first edition 'a compelling, and often persuasive read', David Cameron's detailed review of "After Blair" has been held up by the "Guardian" as the best description of his policies yet. His strong association with the book continued when he referred to it in his famous Keith Joseph lecture last spring. In this revised and expanded edition, O'Hara places Cameron in the context of Conservative history, explaining Cameron's intellectual and political roots in a way that no other book has. Including new, exclusive interviews with Cameron's principal advisors and strategists, a summary of the threat from the right to the Tories' new direction, and an analysis of Cameron's potential, this is the essential book on British politics today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1840467959/?tag=2022091-20
Referendum Roundabout (Societas) by Kieron O'Hara (2006-02-23)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAO63ZT/?tag=2022091-20
(Plato and the Internet) By (author) Kieron O'Hara published on (February, 2002)
(We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles...)
We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles the world, and competitive advantage will be produced from now on by knowledge and creativity. Acquiring and managing knowledge better has become a political imperative. And yet - what is knowledge? The arguments have changed little since Plato. Arguing against sceptics who claim we have no knowledge at all, philosophers have focused on knowledge of facts, on how to distinguish true knowledge from mere belief. But the knowledge economy is less interested in knowledge about facts as in know-how - the Internet provides anyone with a PC and a phone line with access to billions of documents. We are drowning in information, while being starved of knowledge. What we really want is to get clever things done, in smarter ways. Plato and the Internet argues that what is important is not 'what facts you know', but 'what you know how to do', and that the essential contrast is not between knowledge and belief, but between knowledge and information. Is the Internet really something new - or a continuation of the past by other means?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018CJNGEC/?tag=2022091-20
Plato and the Internet (Postmodern Encounters)
(We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles...)
We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles the world, and competitive advantage will be produced from now on by knowledge and creativity. Acquiring and managing knowledge better has become a political imperative. And yet - what is knowledge? The arguments have changed little since Plato. Arguing against sceptics who claim we have no knowledge at all, philosophers have focused on knowledge of facts, on how to distinguish true knowledge from mere belief. But the knowledge economy is less interested in knowledge about facts as in know-how - the Internet provides anyone with a PC and a phone line with access to billions of documents. We are drowning in information, while being starved of knowledge. What we really want is to get clever things done, in smarter ways. Plato and the Internet argues that what is important is not 'what facts you know', but 'what you know how to do', and that the essential contrast is not between knowledge and belief, but between knowledge and information. Is the Internet really something new - or a continuation of the past by other means?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1840463465/?tag=2022091-20
Kieron O'Hara
Edit ProfileCareer
He is a senior research fellow within the department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton where he specialises in the politics, philosophy and epistemology of technology. He is also a research fellow at the Web Science Trust and the conservative think-tank, the Centre for Policy Studies. The knowledge principle, influenced by scepticism, states that: “because society and its mediating institutions are highly complex and dynamic with natures that are constantly evolving as they are co-constituted with the individuals who are their members, both data and theories about society are highly uncertain”.
It therefore follows that societies should be risk-averse with respect to social change, and the burden of proof placed on the innovator, not his or her opponents. It also follows that change, when it does come, should ideally be (a) incremental, (b) reversible where possible and (c) rigorously evaluated before the next incremental step”. Other projects have included co-authoring the script of Tomb Raider 4 and an article in the Journal of Popular Culture on the film Carry On Cabby.
Achievements
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The change principle adds: “because the current state of society is typically undervalued, and because the effects of social innovations cannot be known fully in advance, then social change (a) must always risk destroying beneficial institutions and norms and (b) cannot be guaranteed to achieve the aims for which it was implemented.
Works
book
-
After Blair: David Cameron and the Conservative Tradition
(In David Cameron's review of the first edition of this bo...)
-
(Plato and the Internet) By (author) Kieron O'Hara published on (February, 2002)
(We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles...)
-
Plato and the Internet (Postmodern Encounters)
(We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles...)
- Referendum Roundabout (Societas) by Kieron O'Hara (2006-02-23)
-
After Blair: David Cameron and the Conservative Tradition
Politics
In Conservatism (2011), O’Hara developed the philosophy of ‘small-c conservatism’ that he originally outlined in After Blair (2005/7). He argued that conservatism must be a philosophy concerned with social change, and must be defensible using public reason. To that end, he defined conservatism as the knowledge principle plus the change principle.
Influenced by Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Michael Oakeshott and Friedrich Hayek, O’Hara distanced conservative philosophy from free-market liberalism and neo-conservatism. He also developed ideas about risk and uncertainty about the environment to sketch a type of green conservatism. After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher (2005)
Conservatism (with foreword by David Willetts, 2011).
