Issues
Issue 91: July/August 2012
EDITORIAL
Onwards & Upwards?
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: July/August 2012
Socrates Cleared on Appeal • Robots Taught to Talk • Alan Saunders • See You in Court, Professor! • Congratulations – You’ve Failed! • It Beats Digging a Tunnel • Singer Given Top Aussie Gong — News reports by Sue Roberts
HUMAN ENHANCEMENT
Moral Enhancement
Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson argue that artificial moral enhancement is now essential if humanity is to avoid catastrophe.
Enhancing Human Lifespan
Bennett Foddy proposes a strategy for extending our youthfulness.
A Moderate Approach To Enhancement
Michael Selgelid offers a cautionary perspective on genetic enhancement.
Love and Other Drugs
Brian D. Earp explains how chemical enhancement could save your marriage.
Beyond The Blueprint
Russell Powell says it’s not easy using genes to enhance humanity, even in theory.
ARTICLES
How Not To Forgive
Wendell O’Brien is unforgiving about forgiveness.
Are ‘Matters of Taste’ Matters of Taste?
Michael Langford argues for a degree of objectivity in aesthetics.
The Denial of the Will-To-Live in Literature and Music
Eva Cybulska considers Schopenhauer’s influence on writers and composers.
The Philosophy of Giving
Claire Hamlett reports on two new altruistic initiatives launched by philosophers.
Hallucinatory Experience & Religion Formation
Shawn Harte considers how hallucination might be mistaken for the supernatural.
Kurt Gödel (1906-1978)
Alistair MacFarlane shows how the life of this logician reached beyond pure logic.
LETTERS
Letters
Open Letter From A Simple Greek • UninFORMative? • Thought For Food • Wake Up, Beam Up • Dimensions of Reference • Believing, Not Believing, Believing Not • Intrinsically Valuable Letter • A Philosophical Joke
COLUMNS
Crazy (or What Is It Like to be Batty?*)
by Joel Marks
Testing My Own Morality
By our philosophical science correspondent Massimo Pigliucci.
Notes Towards a Philosophy of Sleep
Raymond Tallis takes us from A to Zzzzz.
REVIEWS
Against All Gods by A.C. Grayling
Chad Trainer ponders A.C. Grayling’s assertion that religion is in its death throes.
Breaking the Spell by Daniel C. Dennett
Paul McGavin’s faith remains unshaken by Daniel Dennett.
Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton
Scott F. Parker meditates on Alain de Botton’s idea of religion without God.
Melancholia
Stefan Bolea takes us on a tour of European nihilism.
CARTOONS
Bill Stott’s Cartoon
by Bill Stott
FICTION
Modify Your Body!
John Tillson watches a world going mad.