Tabla de contenidos para February - March 2025 en Philosophy Now

Since the days of Socrates, philosophers have argued over and written about the best form of society. The classic example is Plato’s Republic, his blueprint for an ideal state. The Greek title doesn’t actually mean republic in the modern sense; Politeia means something more like ‘constitution’. Whatever its title, and despite its matchless brilliance as a work on metaphysics, justice and the foundations of value, some later philosophers have suggested that its subtitle should have been “How not to organise a state”. Plato’s ideal society is rigidly divided into different castes, underpinned by a ‘Noble Lie’, poetry is forbidden and generally it seems the sort of highlyordered place that looks neat from a distance but might be less fun to actually inhabit. Karl Popper even called it totalitarian. His student…

‘More songs about Buildings and Food’ was the title of a 1978 album by the rock band Talking Heads. It was about all the things rock stars normally don’t sing about. Pop songs are usually about variations on the theme of love; tracks like Rose Royce’s 1976 hit ‘Car Wash’ are the exception. Philosophers, likewise, tend to have a narrow focus on epistemology, metaphysics and trifles like the meaning of life. But occasionally great minds stray from their turf and write about other matters, for example buildings (Martin Heidegger), food (Hobbes), tomato juice (Robert Nozick), and the weather (Lucretius and Aristotle). This series of Shorts is about these unfamiliar themes; about the things philosophers also write about. Philosophers on Cars “I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent…

(After more attacks in Beirut) It is morning again, but they have killedthe morning. The book of life is blood-smatteredand death is all we read, words and phrasesbecoming pages, horrid leaf without leave, dog-eared. Even the connoisseurs of doubtfind a certain sort of tragic surety hereand are maddened by it, becoming strangers to themselves – the world about them, the world they’re used to,filled with the shrapnel of a blind man’s hate, the grapeshotthat is half a minus number, half a square root… But for them it’s an old and selfsame story: besieged,a sinister knife at the throat, the unseen rageof an enemy caught in the cage of its own brittleness – a coward from a distance, winning by flame and fire alone,a foreigner to the morning, a ghost behind…

“If I were asked to describe my ideal ‘intellectual-with-a-small i’ I would do it thus: a person who can start an evening with Shakespeare, continue with [Fu] Manchu and James Bond, jog further with Robert Frost, cavort with Moliere and Shaw, sprint with Dylan Thomas, dip into Yeats, watch All in the Family and Johnny Carson, and finish up the morning with Loren Eiseley, Bertrand Russell and the collected cartoon work of Johnny Hart’s B.C.” Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 was published over seventy years ago, in 1953, and yet continues to be a source of controversy, being banned by many school boards, libraries, and other institutions throughout the United States – an ironic fate for a novel about literary censorship. On March 13, 1954, the philosopher…

The Atheists Strike Back DEAR EDITOR: I have problems with Anselm’s ontological argument which was summarised in Issue 165. It’s: ‘God is the greatest; It is greater to exist than not exist; Therefore God exists’. The first premise is an unevidenced assertion which implies the conclusion. And ‘greatest’ is meaningful only in relation to a defined scale of value. It sometimes means ‘biggest’; but we might speak of the greatest wine or the greatest marathon runner. So what sense of ‘greatness’ is Anselm talking about? DON CAMERON PORTISHEAD, BRISTOL DEAR EDITOR: In Andrew Likoudis’s article entitled ‘A Critique of Pure Atheism’ in Issue 165, in a box, you [Grant Bartley] summarise ‘Three Philosophical Arguments For God’. You comment regarding the Ontological Argument: “it’s difficult to pin down exactly what’s wrong…

MIKHAIL BULGAKOV (1891-1940) was a Russian physician turned playwright and novelist. His masterpiece The Master and Margarita (1966) took him twelve years to write. At one point he ended up burning the manuscript in a fit of despair – just as his protagonist the Master does to his own masterpiece in the novel. Yet, it took even longer for the book to be published. Due to the strict censorship of Soviet society, an entire twenty-six years after his death passed before the public saw it. The book takes the reader on a raucous adventure. Flying pigs, cats with guns, hapless people losing their heads, and money falling from the sky, are only some of the adventures awaiting the reader. But despite the fanciful shenanigans, the book is well worth reading…

The place of women in Islam has always been controversial, especially as Islamic thinkers were always trying to describe the role of women using religious teachings. Al-Farabi (c.870-951 CE) emphasized the equal status of men and women in an ideal world, but he also considered differences between the two sexes. For example, a man has superiority in the feeling of ‘anger’, whereas woman score more highly in ‘affection’. However, the essence of man and woman is the same, and both of them are equal in the basic attributes of ‘sense and imagination’ and ‘wisdom’. This latter idea is rooted in the Quran. In verse 189 of the chapter Al-A’raf, it is stated that God “is the One who created you from a single breath.” Al-Farabi argues that each and every…

A few years ago, as I was setting out on holiday, I looked at the departure board and noticed a flight flagged up for Florence. This reminded me of something I had forgotten in the rush to tidy things up before my departure; namely, to refer a patient, whose first name was Florence, for a surgical opinion. I immediately phoned my place of work to ensure that Florence was seen by the relevant expert. Later that day, she had an emergency operation that saved her life. I have often thought about this episode as an example of what philosophers, after Bernard Williams, call ‘moral luck’ (also the subject of a superb essay by Michael Philips in Philosophy Now Issue 32, ‘Moral Luck and Moral Theory’). Had the plane to Florence…

Caroline Deforche Caroline Deforche is a Belgium-based freelance translator. She enjoys delving into metaphysical and ethical questions, alongside 19th-century literature, while her love for the natural world nurtures her sense of wonder. Her border collie, a firm believer in the philosophy of carpe diem, ensures life never becomes too serious. Daniel Toré Daniel Toré is a philosophy teacher and lecturer for the Swedish Open University (Folkuniversitetet) and has been a member of the British Wittgenstein Society since 2015. Daniel is particularly interested in topics such as the philosophy of language, ethics, and logic. Sandra Woien Dr Sandra Woien is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Her most recent research explores the relevance of ancient philosophy to the pursuit of…

In this article I discuss the relationship between trust and truth, their value, and our inherent need for them. In particular, I want to explore how these concepts function in political conversations between individuals and in conversations between political parties and the electorate. I will argue that these ideas both constitute and express how we conceive of one another. This suggests that they’re deeply intertwined with our understanding of humanity. Politics is bound up with what we believe to be important for ourselves and others. It involves persuading others of particular views, and of the practical implications of those views. This is evident in the legacies of political thinkers, such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Surveying the landscape of politics offers the possibility of shedding light on how political…

“Hereditary states are much less difficult to hold than new states. If such a ruler is ordinarily diligent and competent his government will always be secure.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1532) “My first moral maxim was to obey the laws and customs of my country, keeping to the religion in which I was brought up.” René Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637) Machiavelli is a political philosopher with a sulferous reputation. His comment above, though, reflected his bitter personal experience of warring Italian city states. He wrote The Prince after his decades of dedicated and skillful public service to the Florentine Republic had been rewarded with torture and exile. Perhaps his implicit approval of the relatively stable hereditary monarchies was not surprising. Nor was René Descartes’ support for monarchy, for, as…

For many of us the world’s first global pandemic for a century was a watershed moment. The Covid-19 crisis was plausibly claimed to have been caused by risky ‘gain-of-function research’: that is, through the deliberate enhancing of viruses. That would be a tremendous technological achievement, but also an ominous one. It would also be a global example of what can happen when human technical ability is untethered from adequate moral reflection: global disaster. Nor is this the first time we’ve glimpsed how terrifying human invention can be. As Robert Oppenheimer famously exclaimed when the first nuclear bomb was detonated, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” He wasn’t kidding. Due partly to his assistance, we are now indeed capable of destroying all life on this planet. None of…

Dr. Gindi is one of Switzerland’s foremost sculptors, whose work has been exhibited in many countries. Her bronzes are an invitation to the viewer to rethink their relationship to the world. We see a person, a face, a hand, but we know that there is more to grasp, something that’s captured by a tension between what’s there in the bronze and what is not there. Through this, Dr. Gindi wants to lead us into an infinite range of possibilities, and thereby make us reflect on the fact that life too is full of possibilities. Dr. Gindi, your work is characterized by an inquiry into the human condition. As a philosopher-sculptor, you seek to usher us closer to finding our place in the universe. What are we searching for? And why?…

This book is a work of joyful wonder inspired by the encounter between Philosophy Now columnist Prof. Raymond Tallis and one of the world’s most beautiful cities. The memoir is anchored in the enchanting No.22 tram journey linking the author’s flat in Prague with the Castle. Prague is unpacked in a torrent of sharp-eyed observations, reflections, and speculations, seasoned with mischievous humour. An attempt to encompass the magic, history, culture, and tragedy of the city is interwoven with reflections on the enigmas of the human mind, of memory and forgetfulness, of knowledge and ignorance, and our strange nature as embodied subjects. The story of the meeting of a mind and a city widens and deepens into a celebration of the mystery of the world and of the human creatures who…

• World Logic Day celebrated here and there • Most folk think they know enough to judge • Don Cupitt, Sea of Faith theologian, dies A Rare Celebration of Logic You may not have noticed or, on the contrary, you may have celebrated World Logic Day 2025, which has just passed. World Logic Day is marked every 14th January and is officially recognised by UNESCO. The annual celebration of all things logical was created in 2019 by a Swiss logician with degrees in mathematics and philosophy, Jean-Yves Beziau, who is now Professor at the University of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Beziau takes a particular interest in Aristotle’s Square of Opposition, arguing that it remains a logic framework with many applications. If you forgot to do something logical this year,…

Much mainstream philosophical work on migration focuses on whether or not states have a unilateral right to exclude would-be migrants from their territory. This is, clearly, a vitally important question for contemporary politics. However, one striking feature of much of the literature which defends states’ rights to exclude would-be migrants is that it has very little to say about realworld practices of immigration control. Christopher Heath Wellman’s entry on ‘Immigration’ in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy is exemplary in this regard. Wellman offers a useful overview of arguments for and against open borders, and also addresses a number of important questions concerning refugees, guest workers, and the ethics of selecting or recruiting immigrants. It is striking, however, that Wellman doesn’t address questions about which forms of immigration control are morally…

“Isn’t he the guy that invented triangles?” – Student of mine, 2023 Pythagoras of Samos is, without dispute, one of the towering figures of ancient philosophy. Any first-time reader of classical philosophy will inevitably be welcomed by the Big Three: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and before leaving, they may give a polite glance at the Presocratics, before never looking back. However, in that over-the-shoulder moment, they will see some of the most intriguing and unique thinkers philosophy has to offer: Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and amongst their number, the only deer in the herd with horns: Pythagoras. Considered more than merely human by some of his followers, Plato described him as ‘a semidivine master’. Or to quote Anthony Kenny, he is “honoured in antiquity as the first to bring philosophy to…

SINCE HAMAS’S HEINOUS attack on Israel on October 7th 2023 – what some are calling ‘Israel’s 9/11’ – the world has seen a frenzy of claims for and against Israel’s right to exist and the justness of its military response. As the months have gone by, antisemitism has surged worldwide, to levels that were seen only last century, and a deepening rift between diaspora Jews and Israelis has come to dominate the Jewish political discourse. The rabbi and scholar Shaul Magid’s The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance (2023) was written before the current Gaza war, and published shortly after it began. In the present heightened political climate, the book is undeniably provocative. Challenging cherished beliefs about Zionism, the Jewish diaspora and exile, and the State of Israel, Magid’s…

Falling Down (1993) is a gem of a film, and is excellent on many levels. Written by Ebbe Rowe Smith, and directed by Joel Schumacher, it has, rathershallowly, beenplaced by some in the ‘angry white man’ genre. Yet while it does undeniably deal with themes of race and prejudice, another overriding issue seems to drive the film – that of identity. It repeatedly raises the questions, What makes identity? and How does the loss of identity lead to breakdown, both psychologically and socially? Loss and change are portrayed dramatically in Falling Down, as the characters cling to some semblance of identity in the chaos that surrounds them. But the city of Los Angeles itself, the setting of the film, also seems to be suffering a deterioration, or at least a…

philosophynow.org/shop 6 IDEA-PACKED ISSUES FOR £27/US$42 By subscribing to the print edition of Philosophy Now you can save money off the newsstand price, have your copies delivered to your door, enjoy unrestricted access to the thousands of past articles in our website archive and get a PDF copy of the mag too. philosophynow.org/subscribe or send us the coupon below. Subscription inquiries: subscriptions@philosophynow.org or phone +44 1959 534171 To tell us about a change of address, please email addresschange@philosophynow.org Back Issues & Digital Editions Back Issues in Print Issue 164 Thoughts on Thought: Emergence, Mary’s Room, McGilChrist, the unconscious, mind evolution / being right / freedom / what makes a philosopher? / Bakewell interview Issue 165 God: Exploring Atheism; a Critique of Atheism; Medieval Islam; the problem of evil / Focus…