Alan Xuereb

European Union, Luxembourg · European Court of Justice

All those who know me a little bit know that I am very interested in the concept of time, both as a scientific concept as well as a philosophical concept. About two years ago I had been entrusted to organise the international event of the Oxford Philosophical Society in Trier.

In his book “Reflections on the Common Good” Alan Xuereb clearly illustrates the planetary dimension of the concept of the common good and how it also applies to a small place like Malta. The main message is that we must think not only locally, but we must think and act regionally and even globally for the common good of humanity. I doubt that Alan...

There is what I would call a lingering problem in theoretical physics. This problem boils down to the unification of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The resolution for this issue would then be called a theory of everything. Physicists have a favourite candidate for such a theory, string theory, which calls for what Thomas Kuhn would...

‘Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them!’

During this weird dark patch in humanity’s history ‘hands’ have become protagonists. We hear over and over again phrases like: ‘wash your hands properly’, ‘use a hand rub’, ‘do not shake hands’, ‘give a helping hand to those who are vulnerable amongst us’ and so on and so forth.

My condensed reflections on the Covid-19 pandemic and chaos, prompted by a painting that has been hanging in our dining room for the past three years. Two main concepts I feel are of importance for Malta: (1) People should always come before things; and (2) the need for the creation of an entity studying the future similar to the Future of Humanity...

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) may be described as a “Black Swan” event. The latter is a term coined by Nicholas Taleb that simply means an unexpected and hard-to-predict event which is not within the range of normal expectations. Nevertheless, this Black Swan will result in a severe economic retrenchment on a global level in 2020 and perhaps even beyo...

If suicide - (perhaps the highest form of self-harm) - goes against the basic human value of life, then correspondingly “unreasonableness” goes against the basic human and irreducible value of “practical reasonableness”, as developed by the Oxford scholar John Finnis. According to this view, practical reasonableness is the type of reasoning that w...

This critical thinking ought to start first and foremost with our children, through encouraging them to “ask a good question”!

Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy and jurisprudence that seeks to answer basic questions about law and legal systems, such as ‘What is law?’, ‘What are the criteria for legal validity?’, ‘What is the relationship between law and morality?’, and many other similar questions. I will be dealing with question of justice and will be concerned...

Il-ħin huwa kunċett tant familjari għalina lkoll fil-ħajja ta’ kuljum. Nużaw kontinwament espressjonijiet relatati mal-ħin sabiex nesprimu varjetà ta’ sitwazzjonijiet. Nużaw: “iż-żmien isewwi kollox” biex nagħtu tama jew nikkonslaw lil xi ħadd. Nużaw: “niltaqgħu fil-canteen f’ħin l-ikel” hawnhekk qed nagħtu koordinati dimensjonali - fl-ispazju (il-...

Contemplation of The Inverted Tower of Babylon The Mythological and Religious Context

In every good science fiction story there's a new, or limitless, source of energy. How would our economy adapt to that? What would the world look like?

“Time” such a familiar and yet elusive concept. What is time? Is time fundamental? Is it emergent? Did it exist before the big bang? Are past, present and future illusions? Why does time move forward? Or does it all, move? If according to Einstein’s theory of relativity our reality is a 4-dimensional one, “time” being just one of these dimensions,...

‘The Unreality of Time’ painting is an expressionist rendering of reality, inspired by the best-known philosophical work of the Cambridge idealist J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925). In a famous article, first published in Mind, January 1908, McTaggart argued that time is unreal because our descriptions of time are either contradictory, circular, or in...

What really makes us human is the prediction machine in our heads - from daydreaming to movies - running scenarios is the most unique activity humans possess. Despite the fact that some authors like Vinge argue that science-fiction authors cannot write realistic post-singularity characters which surpass the human intellect, as the thoughts of such...

What really makes us human is the prediction machine in our heads - from daydreaming to movies - running scenarios is the most unique activity humans possess. Despite the fact that some authors like Vinge argue that science-fiction authors cannot write realistic post-singularity characters which surpass the human intellect, as the thoughts of such...

A small snippet of the paper presented in Milan in the winter issue of "Law and Practice" published by the Chamber of Advocates - Malta 2018

A distinction ought to be drawn between the concept of Dritt and the concept of Liġi. http://ec.europa.eu/translation/maltese/magazine/documents/laccent_16_mt.pdf

Many have proposed planetary government models, common good models and so on and so forth, but the model discussed in this short article incorporates some scientific discoveries that will change our future once and for all. Thinking as a species is perhaps humanity’s most ambitious goal.

There is a claim that the Maltese language is not a real language but just a dialect. Whilst I argue against this thesis, I also point out, why, in opinion, this criticism flourished. This might be a self-inflicted situation whereby the use of English has somehow hindered the development of Maltese in some sectors. Namely, in the scientific field w...

Dr David Borg argues that "principe de légalité" should be translated as "prinċipju ta' legalità" whilst Dr Alan Xuereb suggests the expression "nulla poene sine lege" http://ec.europa.eu/translation/maltese/magazine/documents/issue_11_mt.pdf

l-Malti huwa l-ilsien nazzjonali tar-Repubblika ta’ Malta. Huwa l-ilsien uffiċjali flimkien mal-Ingliż; kif ukoll wieħed mil-lingwi uffiċjali tal-Unjoni Ewropea L’influenza della lingua italiana nel maltese in ambito giuridico e non solo