Issue 28: August/September 2000

EDITORIAL

News: August/September 2000

Chimp in courtroom drama • Scientist in ‘time travel’ shock claim • American thinkers appoint new leader • Aussie schoolkids to study Socrates

AUTHENTICITY

A Recipe for Authenticity

Nobody ever put food on the table by worrying about the notion of authenticity… or did they? Gordon Giles on authentic culinary performance.

Musical Hermeneutics: The ‘Authentic’ Performance of Early Music

What does make a musical performance authentic? What do we mean by authenticity anyway? Michael Graubart looks for some answers.

ARTICLES

Over the last 150 years the commanding heights of philosophy have been captured by paid, university-based academics. A feature of this shift has been the growth of conferences – hundreds take place each year, tiny ones and vast ones, some devoted to narrow topics such as the Early Wittgenstein and others covering the whole range of human thought. Opinions are divided about conferences, with some seeing them as a substitute for actually doing philosophy and others regarding them as essential to the exchange of ideas which can spark genuinely creative work. Here we present two very different views of two very different conferences.

Cross-Dressing with Jacques and Judy

Peter Benson ponders the construction and deconstruction of our traditional notions about gender.

Needs & Wants

Peg Tittle wonders if she can be happy alone without feeling guilty about it.

Proper Sentiment and Human Cloning

Stephen Clark on the responsibilities of those who create new kinds of life.

Sophie’s World: The Boardgame!

Chris Bloor spends a Summer afternoon wisely with white wine, some friends and a pair of dice.

Survival of the Fittest

Does ‘survival of the fittest’ simply mean ‘survival of those best able to survive’? If so, is the theory of evolution just an empty statement of the obvious? Fred Leavitt unravels a logical challenge to Darwinism.

The Singer Revolution

Ethicist and animal rights advocate Peter Singer has faced public outrage over his views on infanticide and euthanasia. Richard Taylor explains why he regards Singer as the most important thinker of the present generation.

What’s New in… African Philosophy

African thinkers are confronting their continent’s vast problems and grappling with the nature of their own intellectual and cultural heritage. Safro Kwame casts a critical eye over the scene and describes the philosophers and their work.

Willard V. Quine

by Rob Stainton

INTERVIEWS

Sir Stuart Hampshire

Sir Stuart Hampshire has a new theory of justice based on the inevitability of conflict and on the importance of hearing the other side. Paul Sheehy asked him about his struggles with justice.

LETTERS

Letters

Mel-Born • Pleasure and Pain • Mad scientist letter • When It Comes To The Crunch • Read any good books lately?

COLUMNS

Dear Socrates

Having returned from the turn of the Fourth Century B.C. to the turn of the Twenty-First A.D., Socrates has eagerly signed on as a Philosophy Now columnist so that he may continue to carry out his divinely-inspired dialogic mission.

Simon Says: Do the Right Thing!

by Joel Marks

REVIEWS

The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science by Nancy Cartwright

Roger Caldwell introduces us to the untidy but realistic world of philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright.

Copenhagen

Our new film columnist has discovered an exciting new type of movie: there’s no screen and the parts are played by live actors, in real time. Thomas Wartenberg reports on the play Copenhagen by Michael Frayn.

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