Issues
Issue 167: April/May 2025
EDITORIAL
Being Human
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: April/May 2025
Creator of feminist standpoint theory dies • New study: do babies have moral intuitions? • Time travel with chimpanzees — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
What Does it Mean to be Human?
Vikas Beniwal considers some philosophers’ core understandings.
Empathy & Sympathy
James R. Robinson asks, how do they relate, and how do they differ?
Guilt
Michael Breslin considers the place of guilt in a healthy personality.
Love Letter
Nigel Rapport steps towards a cosmopolitan love.
Hope: Blessing or Curse?
John Creigan considers whether hope helps us thrive or holds us back.
NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad
Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad interviewed by AmirAli Maleki
Karma & Human Freedom
Utkarsh Chawla tells us why we’re in the moral Goldilocks zone.
Indigenous Australian Philosophy
Ross Naidoo looks at Indigenous thinking through a philosophical lens.
ARTICLES
The Philosophy of Pain
Vikky Leaney says pain is a problem even (or especially) when we can’t see it.
Restoring Our Humanity with John Macmurray
Colin Stott contemplates Macmurray’s reunifying thinking.
The Importance of Nature for Thought
Gerardo Posada considers some of the philosophical benefits of green spaces.
Is Morality Objective Or Subjective?
Each answer below receives a random book. Apologies to the entrants not included.
Paulo Freire (1921-1997)
Bruno de Oliveira follows a philosopher of liberation through education.
LETTERS
Letters
Discomforting Reflections • Talking About The Conversation • Talking About Nothing • God Debate Lives On • Metaphors & Money • In The Cyber Cave • The Rain Has Gone, But…
COLUMNS
A Lifelong Preoccupation
Raymond Tallis recalls a life trying to fathom the chasm between mind and brain.
Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921)
by Terence Green
Philosophers on Smiles
by Matt Qvortrup
The Goal of Life is Happiness
Massimo Pigliucci surveys the views of ancient schools.
REVIEWS
Prague 22 by Raymond Tallis
Rick Lewis reviews Raymond Tallis’s latest book.
Inner Space Philosophy by James Tartaglia
Artur Szutta explores inner space with James Tartaglia.
The Ethics of the Climate Crisis by Robin Attfield
Lucy Weir thinks about climate ethics with Robin Attfield.
God’s Silence on TV
Hugh Hamilton looks at how God is presented. Spoilers for the shows Lucifer, Preacher and Supernatural ahead.
FICTION
Art the Redeemer
by Paul Hughes
One More
There is a moral dilemma in store for J.C. Michaels.
CARTOONS
Mike Shiell’s Cartoon
by Mike Shiell
Harley Schwadron’s Cartoon (1)
by Harley Schwadron
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
Chris Gill’s Cartoon
by Chris Gill
Harley Schwadron’s Cartoon (2)
by Harley Schwadron
Junio Browning’s Cartoon
by Junio Browning
Lab Mice and the Meaning of Life
A comic by Corey Mohler about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world.