Issues
Issue 70: November/December 2008
EDITORIAL
Utopia: Living in a Nowhere Land
by Tim Madigan
NEWS
News: November/December 2008
Faith, science and free speech in the UK • ‘Memory eraser’ experiments • Enlightenment thinkers go online — News reports by Sue Roberts
UTOPIA
An Epicurean Ideal
David Suits fearlessly pursues a materialistic life of simple pleasures.
John Humphrey Noyes: Philosopher of Bible Communism
David White contemplates a life of sex and sermons.
Plato’s Republic: A Utopia For The Individual
Alfred Geier says it’s not about the state of the state.
The Better-Best Fallacy
Toni Vogel Carey argues that perfection is over-rated.
Thoreau’s ‘Paradise To Be Regained’
James Moran considers the archetypal American antedeluvian’s criticism of someone else’s technological paradise.
Visions of a Perfect World
Debra Trione encourages American leaders to make their visions of utopia real.
ARTICLES
Daniel C. Dennett: Autobiography (Part 3)
Dan Dennett continues to philosophically reflect on his philosophical life. This third and final episode covers 2003 to the present.
Do Philosophers Talk Nonsense?
Ian Dearden may or may not…
Searching For Santa
Sam Morris scatters solstice scepticism over the stories of the saint with the supersonic sleigh.
Switching Wine Glasses
Lawrence Crocker asks when it’s right to do the Chateau shuffle.
The XXII World Congress of Philosophy
Filiz Peach reports from the World Congress in Seoul, 30th July – 5th August 2008.
Who Is The Best Philosopher?
The following answers to this essential piece of philosophical gossip each win a signed copy of The Kingdom of Infinite Space by Raymond Tallis. In the best philosophical tradition, nobody got more than one unequivocal vote, so nobody is unequivocally the best.
CROSSWORD
Crossword
Our twenty-fourth mighty mental maze meticulously meditated by Deiradiotes.
LETTERS
Letters
Transcendental in Trentham • No Problem? • Infantile Art • Improbably Philosophy • Thoughts On Dennett • Further Shots At Freedom • The Music of Understanding
COLUMNS
Dear Socrates
Having traveled from the turn of the Fourth Century B.C. to the turn of the Twenty-First Century 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.
Belief
by Joel Marks
The Old and The New
Our philosophical science correspondent Massimo Pigliucci compares their values.
Some Points About Pointing
Raymond Tallis shows that the gesture is not so obvious.
REVIEWS
2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut
Nick DiChario envisions a not-so-rosy future courtesy of Kurt Vonnegut.
Being in Pain by Abraham Olivier
Vince Luizzi gets a new focus on pain from Abraham Olivier.
Nietzsche and Morality
Roger Caldwell responds to an analysis of Nietzsche’s morality.
Nonsense On Stilts? A Quaker View of Human Rights
Mark Frankel examines Quaker perspectives on human rights.
The Wire
Our film columnist Thomas Wartenberg talks about television for a change, as he stares down a cable at The Wire.
FICTION
Highgate Cemetery
Shanta Acharya feels gentle intimations.