Issues
Issue 133: August/September 2019
EDITORIAL
Scientific Knowledge
by Grant Bartley
NEWS
News: August/September 2019
Michel Serres • Transgenic monkeys • Humans “quite nice” say researchers — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
PHILOSOPHY & SCIENCE
Philosophy of Science: The First 2½ Millennia
Will Bouwman asks what really matters when studying matter.
Einstein vs Logical Positivism
Rossen Vassilev Jr. asks if modern physics has become too metaphysical.
Science & Phenomenology
Kalina Moskaluk tells us how an idea outside of her theoretical background destroyed her research project and her faith in ‘simple’ phenomenology.
DNA & The Identity Crisis
Raymond Keogh has a science-based take on personal identity.
Flora or Mona Lisa?
Predrag Slijepcevic asks if organisms are better seen as singular or as composites.
ARTICLES
Aristotle & The Good Ruler
Maxwell Cameron wants politicians to take a lesson from Aristotle’s book.
The Good, The Bad and Theodicy
John Holroyd on the pitfalls of academic debates about God and evil.
Is Attributing Evil a Cognitive Bias?
Aner Govrin argues that a common perception of evil is mistaken.
Tidying Up With Socrates
Freya Mobus compares Socrates’ method of enquiry with a fashionable way to achieve domestic harmony.
Maine de Biran (1766-1824)
Benjamin Bâcle finds Maine de Biran’s idea of the self-willing self to be underrated.
What is the Third Way?
How to negotiate a path between capitalist & socialist excesses? Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the many entrants not included.
INTERVIEWS
John Dupré
John Dupré is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter and Director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences. He was recently elected President of the Philosophy of Science Association. Edit Talpsepp-Randla talks to him about the philosophy of biology.
LETTERS
Letters
The Sound of No Hands Clapping • Minding the Machines • Self Representations • The Sense of Perception • Perspectives on Visions • Ethics, Actions & Effects • No Marks For Marx? • Panned Spiritism • Ethical Chainsaws and Motorbikes
COLUMNS
William of Ockham (1285-1347/8 CE)
by Terence Green
First Believe, Then Understand
Peter Adamson reviews the relation of reason & revelation.
In Measure Began Our Might
Raymond Tallis takes the measure of measurement.
REVIEWS
An Appeal to the World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Ian Robinson has a brief look at the Dalai Lama’s brief message to the world.
Down Girl by Kate Manne
Amber Edwards considers a new understanding of misogyny.
Understanding Ignorance by Daniel R. DeNicola
Paul McGavin finds help in understanding ignorance in Understanding Ignorance.
Nightcrawler
Terri Murray watches the disappearance of reality into images, in the name of news.
CARTOONS
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Steve Delmonte’s Cartoon
by Steve Delmonte
Ron Coleman’s Cartoon
by Ron Coleman
FICTION
Mill Meets Gandhi
Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill worked for the British East India Company for 35 years. Long after Mill’s death, Gandhi led India to independence. Eugene Alper imagines a meeting of these two great political thinkers.