Issues
Issue 136: February/March 2020
EDITORIAL
Greeks Bearing Gifts
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: February/March 2020
Charred scrolls yield Philodemus’ notes • French philosophers debate their future • A ‘philosophical belief’ wins legal protection — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
ANCIENT GREEK WISDOM
Fellowship For Aristotle & Tolkien
Andy Owen explains what Aristotle was tolkien about.
The Wisdom of Ignorance
Daniel Silvermintz wants us to rediscover the virtue of Socratic ignorance.
What Philosophy Does To Philosophers
Rohan Somji looks at the consequences of thinking for three antique thinkers.
A Stoic Response To The Climate Crisis
Matthew Gindin thinks that the Stoics have useful advice for us right now.
The Tragedy That Was Athens
Alex Holzman sees the history of Golden Age Athens as a play with Pericles and Socrates as its tragic heroes.
Let Plato Plan Your Wedding!
Krista Rodkey assembles wedding plans from Plato’s advice on romance and parties in the Republic, Laws, Symposium, & Phaedrus.
ARTICLES
An Essay on Nothing
Sophia Gottfried meditates on the emptiness of non-existence.
Francis Fukuyama & the Perils of Identity
Peter Benson critiques a liberal but nationalistic brand of identity politics.
How To Change Your Mind
Steven Campbell-Harris tells us how philosophy can change thinking.
Immanuel Kant’s Globalization Program
Dan Corjescu looks at how Kant wanted to unite the world.
Kant’s Opus postumum
Terrence Thomson wrestles with Kant’s unfinished work to ask what we should expect from philosophy books.
Ambivalence
E.T. Urso has some philosophical ambivalence for us especially for Valentine’s Day.
Etienne de la Boétie (1530-1563)
Martin Jenkins looks at the life of an influential early political philosopher.
INTERVIEWS
Gary Cox
Gary Cox is the author of several books on existentialism and general philosophy. The 10th anniversary edition of his bestselling self-help book How to Be an Existentialist was published recently. Gavin Smith talks with him about existentialism.
LETTERS
Letters
Press (For) Freedoms • Sleepy Security • Denier-Denier • Viva Santa! • The Author Strikes Back • Artful About Arthur • Pointing Out the Obvious To Tallis? • Epistolary Enhancements • Far Right? Very Wrong
COLUMNS
Heraclitus (c.535-475 BCE)
by Terence Green
The Pleasure Principle
Peter Adamson takes pleasure in pondering ancient hedonism.
Destined In Delhi
Seán Moran contemplates kismet and choreography.
Paying Attention to Attention
Raymond Tallis becomes aware that he can’t afford to ignore attention.
REVIEWS
I Am Dynamite! by Sue Prideaux
Scott Parker looks at Sue Prideaux’s (armour) penetrating biography of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nihilism & Philosophy by Gideon Barker
Roger Caldwell scrutinises philosophical revolutions.
Probably Approximately Correct by Leslie Valiant
Joshua Schrier is approximately correct, probably.
Joker
Ștefan Bolea meditates on madness at the movies.
CARTOONS
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Guto Dias’ Cartoon
by Guto Dias
Jonny Hawkins’ Cartoon
by Jonny Hawkins
FICTION
What is Freedom?
Vincent Kavaloski modernises Plato’s allegory of the Cave.
Achilles and the Tortoise
by Peter Mullen