Issues
Issue 38: October/November 2002
EDITORIAL
Skeptics & Terraformers
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: October/November 2002
Pussycats “Not Moral Agents” Shock • Industry Recruits Philosophical Engineers • McGill Says No to Ayn Rand Chair • Warnock okays human cloning “if safe”
THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE
A Brief History of… Philosophy of Science
Rick Lewis describes what philosophers have thought about science over the last century and a half.
A Late Disciple of Lucretius
Colin Bennett on the eternally surprising Charles Fort.
Baby Products
Neill Furr on some of the mistakes people make when thinking about reproduction.
On Simplicity & Complexity
Phillip Hoffmann gives a simple introduction to a complex subject.
The Ethics of Terraforming
Terraforming is the artificial transformation of other planets into places suitable for human habitation. A good thing, surely? Paul York argues that terraforming isn’t as ethically straightforward as you might think.
What’s New in Philosophy of Science?
So what’s going on in philosophy of science at the moment? Bora Dogan describes some of the current highlights.
ARTICLES
‘The Open Society’ Revisited
Alan Haworth on Karl Popper, his vision of a pragmatic, liberal society, and his assessment of its philosophical enemies.
From Hume to Tillich: Teaching Faith & Benevolence
Nancy Bunge was taught philosophy by two of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers, Willard Quine and Paul Tillich. She remembers the profound effect of Tillich’s ideas.
Memoir of a Jolly Junket in Search of Bishop Butler
Joseph Butler was an 18th century clergyman who left an indelible mark on moral philosophy but isn’t as widely remembered today as he deserves. David White scoured England and Ireland for traces of the man they called The Bishop.
Problems of Affluence in Morality
Do we have a duty to give to charity? Kevin Smith weighs up the possible responses to an ethical dilemma we’ve all faced at one time or another.
INTERVIEWS
Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz author, philosophy professor and professional skeptic, takes time out of a round-the-world lecture tour to talk to our man in Toronto, Colin Hunter.
LETTERS
Letters
Mind and Morals • Mirroring Metaphysics • Chinese Minds • Guns and Thoughts • Impersonal Remarks • Iron Mountain • Socrates’ Prison • The Logic of Nuclear Deterrence • The Point of Philosophy • Women’s Rights • Naked Intimidation • Whose Word is God’s Word?
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.
Car Seats and the Absurd
by Joel Marks
REVIEWS
The Foundations of Morality by George Frankl
Michael Williams has a problem with George Frankl’s psychoanalytic ethics.
Cities of Refuge
John Mann reviews three books on race, asylum and immigration by Matt Cavanagh, Michael Dummett and Jacques Derrida.
The Road to Perdition
Our philosophical film columnist Thomas Wartenberg ponders the complexity of human motives as he takes in the latest gangster movie, The Road to Perdition.
FICTION
Jordy Michaels Leaps the Great Divide
A short story by R.J. Dent.