Issues
Issue 103: July/August 2014
EDITORIAL
How Did He Do That?
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: July/August 2014
David Armstrong Dies • Kindergarten Ethics Lessons • Stephen Hawking warns of Artificial Intelligence dangers — News reports by Sue Roberts and Anja Steinbauer
THE TRACTATUS
Wittgenstein,Tolstoy and the Folly of Logical Positivism
Stuart Greenstreet explains how analytical philosophy got into a mess.
The Tractatus… is it so intractable?
Carlos Muñoz-Suárez guides us on a trip down the linguistic rabbit hole.
“The world is all that is the case”
José Zalabardo investigates which problem Wittgenstein is trying to solve.
The Tractatus Code
Sándor Szegláb decodes the hidden message of the Tractatus.
ARTICLES
Does Philosophy Get Out of Date?
Mary Midgley says philosophy is about understanding the context and about understanding how we came to be where we are.
Climate of Disbelief
Paul Biegler asks whether the way we form our beliefs means we’re hardwired to succumb to global warming.
The Philosophical Library
Rick Lewis on libraries, philosophical classics, unexpected discoveries and the challenges of a digital age.
How to Read Philosophy
What follows is an extract from a forthcoming book called AQA AS Philosophy by Gerald Jones, Dan Cardinal & Jeremy Hayward – an engaging, student-friendly textbook designed to help UK high school students embrace and enjoy philosophy at AS level. It seemed such a useful guide that we decided to print it here as well.
Public Life, John Dewey, and Media Technology
Hans Lenk and Ulrich Arnswald use John Dewey’s distinction between public and private life to consider some implications of information technology.
The Impossibility of Maximizing Good Consequences
Lawrence Crocker on lotteries, reasonable actions, and weird outliers.
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
Dale DeBakcsy tells us how Ludwig Feuerbach revolutionized philosophy and got absolutely no credit for it.
How Should I Live?
The following readers’ answers to this central human question each win a book.
LETTERS
Letters
Feeling Philosophical? • High Class Underworld • Defending Derrida • More Arguments About God • Impinging on Realities • Philosophical Speculations
COLUMNS
The Comet Cometh
Tim Madigan hears Pierre Bayle’s 17th century plea for religious toleration.
A Small Explosion From A (Relatively) Quiet Atheist
Raymond Tallis considers democracy and assisted dying.
REVIEWS
Ethics Without Morals by Joel Marks
Bill Meacham finds Ethics Without Morals easy enough to live with.
Knowledge by Ian Evans and Nicholas D. Smith
Nick Everitt is uncertain about a book on Knowledge.
How To Live: Wise (and not so Wise) Advice from Philosophers by Martin Cohen
Patricia Cleveland-Peck gets some ‘dodgy’ advice from philosophers concerning How To Live.
War Horse
Colin Brookes gains ethical understanding from a profound aesthetic experience.
CARTOONS
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Chris Madden’s Cartoon
by Chris Madden
Chris Gill’s Cartoon
by Chris Gill
FICTION
Dream or Reality?
Edo Shonin and William Van Gordon dream of the not too distant future.