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Editorial

A Matter of Life & Death

by Rick Lewis

If, like many, you think that 2000 is the last year of the 20th century rather than the first of the 21st, then this issue of Philosophy Now will straddle two millennia! It is our thirtieth issue, which is also a landmark as any 29 year old will tell you.

Despite the growing wave of public interest in philosophy, there are still plenty of people about who regard it as a highly rarefied intellectual pass-time with no connection to the ‘real world’, whatever that might be. Nothing could be further from the truth. In many cases doing some philosophy – ie sitting down and thinking things through in a rational, structured way – is the only way to get clear about the problems which confront us as individuals and as a society. There are questions where the passions aroused, or the vested interests involved, or even the natural conservatism of sensibly cautious people when it comes to altering their opinions, can get in the way of a cool assessment of the merits of the case.

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