Issues
Issue 112: February/March 2016
EDITORIAL
Feel Free To Differ
by Grant Bartley
NEWS
News: February/March 2016
University scraps philosophy exams • Ethics teaching the Meiji way • Canadians consider euthanasia for children — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
FREE WILL
Free Will Is An Illusion, But Freedom Isn’t
Ching-Hung Woo says freedom is compatible with choices being determined.
The New Argument About Freedom
Natasha Gilbert says out with the old arguments, and in with the new.
The Brain’s Risk/Reward System Makes Our Choices, Not Us
Graham W. Boyd argues that choice is an illusion.
Akrasia: Why Do We Act Against Our Better Judgement?
George Singleton asks why we splash out on luxuries worth a month’s income, struggle to give up smoking, and resort to below-the-belt insults in heated arguments.
Reclaiming Freedom
Steve Taylor says of determinism: “I refute it thus!”
ARTICLES
Leibniz & the Infinite Mechanism of Life
Audrey Borowski peers into the infinity inside all organisms, including us.
Herder & Human Identity
Brian King says that to understand the herd, you need a Herder.
How Nietzsche Inspired Dalí
Magdalena Scholle looks for Apollonian and Dionysian traits in Salvador Dalí’s art.
Justifying Our Moral Judgments
Thomas Dabay combines the ideas of David Hume and Immanuel Kant to help show how we can be right about what’s right.
Why Self-Interest Makes Relationships Valuable
Daniel Tippens argues that our self-interestedness has a positive side after all.
Colin Wilson (1931-2013)
Vaughan Rapatahana remembers the singular English existentialist.
INTERVIEWS
D.D. Raphael
The moral and political philosopher D.D. (David Daiches) Raphael died just before Christmas – a month short of his 100th birthday. Shortly before his death, he spoke to Gideon Calder about what more than eighty years in philosophy involves.
LETTERS
Letters
The Tears of Many Clowns • Original Thinking • Liberty, Equality, Technology • Can Robots Wrestle with Ethics? • Uncommon Sensations • Absurd Speculations? • Who Am I? • Atheism On Its Own Terms
COLUMNS
Eastern Promises
Peter Adamson spots some similarities between ancient Greek and ancient Indian philosophies.
“What A Possessive!”: On Being Embodied
Raymond Tallis takes a good look at himself.
REVIEWS
The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer
Joel Marks critiques Peter Singer’s popular ethics.
Does Altruism Exist? by David Sloan Wilson
William Irwin asks if pure ethics exists at all.
Good Will Hunting
Tamás Szabados gives it an existential analysis.
CARTOONS
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Bubble Therapy
by Steve Delmonte
The Auto-Icon
A comic by Corey Mohler about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world.
FICTION
Free?
by Peter Duff
“… as it was determined to be so.”
Kevin Heinrich follows the fate of some determined townsfolk.