Issues
Issue 101: March/April 2014
EDITORIAL
By the People, For the People
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: March/April 2014
Hand lets amputees feel • Philosophy dept in sexism row • Putin’s favourite thinkers • Philosopher becomes party leader — News reports by Sue Roberts
PLATO AND DEMOCRACY
The Ship of Fools
Anja Steinbauer explains why Plato had problems with democracy.
Democracy Is Sick
Amy Pollard reads Plato’s Republic as a reform document.
Plato’s Ideal Ruler Today
Mark Tan shows us how to overcome our distrust and cynicism towards governments through the appointment of philosopher kings.
On Democratic Theories
Huong Nguyen considers current trends in democratic thinking.
Could Plato’s Republic Work In China?
Keith Hui compares the Chinese state to Plato’s republic.
ARTICLES
Philosophy in the Popular Imagination
Andrew Taggart is philosophical about a widespread misperception of philosophy.
Philosophical Feelings
Mikhail Epstein feels that philosophy is not only thinking.
Being Charitable To Kant
Terri Murray tries to be so.
Kant & Rand on Rationality & Reality
Dana Andreicut tells us about their philosophical differences and similiarities.
Philosophical Reviews of The Bible
Michael Langford responds to Les Reid’s review of the Bible in Issue 99.
One Will to Rule Them All
Steve Neumann on morality, games and Bilbo Baggins.
Rilke’s God
Peter Rickman on a poet’s metaphors and the creation of the world.
Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623)
Gerald Curzon reviews the life and opinions of the original New Atheist.
What Is Life?
The following answers to this fundamental question each win a random book.
OBITUARIES
Colin Wilson (1931-2013)
Vaughan Rapatahana pays tribute to the positive-minded existentialist.
LETTERS
Letters
Critique & Cause • On Unhappiness • Saying Nothing • God Issues • Ought We To Survive? • Seeing Red • Arthur Danto Transfigured
COLUMNS
Taking Issue with The God Issue
Raymond Tallis argues against theist arguments in PN 99.
REVIEWS
A Philosophy to Live By: Engaging Iris Murdoch by Maria Antonaccio
Tony Milligan engages with Iris Murdoch’s ethics.
Intuition Pumps by Daniel C. Dennett
Nathaniel Goldberg shares his intuitions about Daniel Dennett’s Intuition Pumps.
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Philip Badger finds The Righteous Mind difficult to believe unqualifiedly.
Satyagraha
Grant Bartley focuses on the forces of history through Philip Glass’s opera about Gandhi.
CARTOONS
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
You Are Here
by Chris Madden
Vadim Dozmorov’s Cartoon
by Vadim Dozmorov
FICTION
Socrates on Conservatism
Mordecai Roshwald imagines what the Athenian gadfly might have said.