With large questions of right and wrong, there is a division of labour. So, with the attack on three subway trains and a bus in London on July 7, 2005. Of what moral relevance, if any, was the fact that the British army had been engaged in the killing of greatly more of a people with whom the terrorists identified? Of what relevance, as a newspaper article asked a week later, was the fact that the British prime minister put his own people at risk in the service of a foreign power? So begins Ted Honderich's intelligent and thoughtful analysis in "Terrorism and Humanity". What Honderich says will doubtless cause a great deal of controversy too (his last book on this subject was initially banned in Germany on the grounds it was anti-Semitic, only to be re-published by a Jewish press). However, his views will also be acceptable to a great many Jews (he puts forward arguments to justify the founding of Israel and its secure perpetual existence). Looking in detail at the situation in Palestine, 9/11, the war in Iraq and the events of 7/7, Ted Honderich offers neither a sensationalist rant nor an academic treatise. Instead "Terrorism and Humanity" provides a thoughtful and perceptive exploration of the "biggest" issue facing the western world today.

Ted Honderich (born 1933) is Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London. He is a Canadian-born British academic philosopher, of Mennonite origin, who moved to London in 1959 to work with Alfred Ayer. His brother was the late publisher Beland Honderich.

In 1972, he became Reader in Philosophy at University College London, and was Grote Professor from 1988 until his retirement in 1998. He was previously a lecturer there, and has also lectured at the University of Sussex, as well as holding visiting lectureships at Yale University and the City University of New York.

He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.