Issues
Issue 44: January/February 2004
EDITORIAL
We’ve Got Issues!
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: January/February 2004
Cloning Clampdown • Sex Selection Ban • Sell Your Own Liver! • Iris Murdoch’s library for sale • Robot Gets Emotional — News reports by Sue Roberts in London and Lisa Sangoi in New York
THE ISSUES
Carbon Copies
Neill Furr examines the various arguments against human cloning and finds them all flawed. He says we should proceed with caution, but doesn’t think cloning should be banned.
Darwin’s Rottweiler & the Public Understanding of Science
Peter Williams claims that Richard Dawkins is a good writer but a poor logician, and attempts to prove it with examples of some formal fallacies.
Pax Americana
David Gamez thinks we need to revise the theory of Just Wars to say when it is and when it isn’t permissible to impose utopia by force.
Shock the Monkey
Confessions of a Rational Animal Liberationist by Jeremy Yunt.
ARTICLES
Did the World Have a Beginning?
Mark Goldblatt on a medieval debate with modern echoes.
Richard Taylor Remembered
One of the most colourful and engaging of modern philosophers (and of Philosophy Now contributors) is recalled by Robert Holmes, Barry Gan and Tim Madigan.
Sartre & Peanuts
Nathan Radke claims that Charlie Brown is an existentialist.
The Gymnasiums of the Mind
Christopher Orlet wanders down literary paths merrily swinging his arms and pondering the happy connection between philosophy and a good brisk walk.
Zombies Can’t Concentrate
Mary Midgley explains why she doesn’t believe in zombies.
OBITUARIES
Edward Said (1935-2003)
by Anat Biletzki
Richard Wollheim (1923-2003)
by Lisa Sangoi
LETTERS
Letters
Materialism For… • …and Against • The Real Richard Rorty? • A Phenomenally Pragmatic Point • Death Penalty • Earth: Mostly Harmless? • What about AIDS, eh? • Join the Professionals? • Philosophy & Divination • Minds versus Brains! • The Philosopher as Choreographer
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.
A Funny Thing About Consciousness
by Joel Marks
What is Philosophy of Science Good For?
The first of occasional columns on science and philosophy by Massimo Pigliucci.
REVIEWS
Art and Knowledge by James O. Young
Bob Sharpe takes issue with James Young’s theory about art.
On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry
Peter Benson applauds a beautiful book on beauty by Elaine Scarry.
The Power of Ideas by Isaiah Berlin
Antony Flew devours a vastly varied collection of essays by the late Isaiah Berlin.
Remake
Ellen Klein reviews a poignant and thoughtful film from her adopted home town of Sarajevo – Remake.
FICTION
Planck’s Angels
by Kane S. Latranz
The Contributions of Jeopardy! to Western Philosophy
Ronald Lindsay on a novel, if slightly desperate, way of funding philosophical research.