Issues
Issue 141: December 2020 / January 2021
EDITORIAL
Time and Being
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: December 2020 / January 2021
Study finds moral choices gendered • Ethics of wiring your brain to a computer • Philosopher rides along Montaigne track — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
TIME, IDENTITY & FREE WILL
To Be Is To Persist
Dustin Gray finds out that continuing to exist isn’t as simple as you might think.
The Metaphysics of Groundhog Day
Lawrence Crocker says it’s about time, and personal identity, and free will.
Free Will & The Brain
Kevin Loughran wonders what scientific experiments really tell us about free will.
Determinism versus Determinism
Nurana Rajabova is determined to sort it out.
Do We Want To Be Free?
Siobhan Lyons discovers that free will doesn’t come for free.
ARTICLES
Homo informaticus
Luc de Brabandere lets us sail with him along the two great rivers of thought that have flowed down the centuries from ancient philosophy into modern computer science, from Plato and Aristotle to Alan Turing and Claude Shannon.
Homosexuality & Christianity
Douglas Groothuis argues that it is possible for someone to be gay, happy, and committed to traditional sexual ethics.
The Future of Philosophy is CYBORG
Phil Torres imagines a biotech way of solving intractable philosophical problems.
On Casuistry
Jason Morgan advocates justice without legislation.
Hedonism in Ancient India & Greece
Nick Gutierrez wonders if pleasure-seeking is underrated as a virtue.
José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)
Morgan Sloan studies a Spanish philosopher and public intellectual who wanted to use philosophy to help society.
Does History Progress? If So, To What?
Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the entrants not included.
LETTERS
Letters
Real Unreality • The Meaning In and Of Life • Robotic Reasoning • Distilling Hegelian Spirit • Capital Letters • Godless Morality
COLUMNS
Henri Bergson (1859-1941)
by Terence Green
Philosophers on Food
by Matt Qvortrup
Do You Need Any Body?
Peter Adamson on Avicenna’s soul survivors.
Arguing with a Solipsist
Raymond Tallis takes it upon himself to prove that you exist.
REVIEWS
Truth by Simon Blackburn
Nick Everitt is unconvinced that what Simon Blackburn says about truth is true.
Perfect Me by Heather Widdows
A ‘feminish’ book, reviewed by Stuart Hannabuss, reflects on beauty and otherness.
Xenofeminism by Helen Hester
A ‘feminish’ book, reviewed by Dharmender Dhillon, reflects on beauty and otherness.
On Not Being Someone Else by Andrew H. Miller
Alexandre Leskanich looks wistfully at all the lives he and we haven’t led.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Siobhain Lash argues that you can sometimes be to blame even when you couldn’t have done differently.
CARTOONS
Mike Shiell’s Cartoon (1)
by Mike Shiell
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Chris Gill’s Cartoon
by Chris Gill
Mike Shiell’s Cartoon (2)
by Mike Shiell
FICTION
Who am I?
by Jenny Maryl
The Leviathan
by Boghos Artinian
Diminished Responsibility
Mark Pinder sees physics turn into metaphysics when an experiment goes wrong.