Issues
Issue 75: September/October 2009
EDITORIAL
The Drama of Existence
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: September/October 2009
Farewell to two political philosophers • Confucius comes to Houston • Train Your Brain (read Philosophy Now!) — News reports by Sue Roberts
EXISTENTIALISM & CULTURE
Angst and Affirmation in Modern Culture
Sam Morris on the existential choice we all face.
Oedipus: A Thinker At The Crossroads
Eva Cybulska asks who Oedipus thinks he is.
Reimagining Sisyphus
Philip Villamor rethinks Albert Camus’ famous rock’n’roll parable.
Sam Spade, Existential Hero?
Michael Rockler scrutinizes the private investigator’s existentialist credentials.
Sartre on Literature
Ion Georgiou explains the literary theories of a man who loved words.
Sartre, Kafka & Buber On Identity
Stephen Small on defining other people and ourselves.
Tetris: A Game of the Absurd
Robert Harries says that playing this game is a Sisyphean task, and represents the human spirit up against a meaningless fate.
We Have Spirit, Yes We Do! We Have Spirit, How ‘Bout You?
Dan Sinykin says that Kierkegaard is worried about you.
ARTICLES
Can Philosophy Still Produce Public Intellectuals?
John Lachs criticizes the philosopher’s lack of public initiative.
Flunking The Prisoners’ Dilemma
Lawrence Crocker considers how best to avoid a lengthy prison term.
On Roderick Chisholm
Matthew Davidson briefly defines an important analytical thinker.
The Simulated Universe
Brent Silby asks, is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?
CROSSWORD
Crossword
Our twenty-ninth matrix of meaning meticulously mapped by Deiradiotes.
LETTERS
Letters
Ways of Intuition • The Edge of Science • Golden Words • Tallis and the Word • Books and the Word • Boxing Clever • An Angry Buddhist Writes • Dile-A-Dragon
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.
Taking Determinism Seriously
by Joel Marks
Reflections On Epilepsy
Raymond Tallis applies his mind to his mind.
REVIEWS
Love and its Disappointment by David Brazier
Mary Midgley writes of love and therapy.
Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective by Marti Kheel
Lisa Kemmerer analyses a feminist analysis of hunting.
Poincaré’s Prize by George G. Szpiro
David Dillard-Wright is philosophical about mathematics.
Revolutionary Road
Nick DiChario asks if it’s existential, or just depressing.
FICTION
The Hat
A short play by Zsuzsanna Ardó.
I once saw magic in the veins of things
by George Eraclides