Issue 41 2nd Quarter 2008

Contents

Actions and Events

4 From the Editor

4 News
Massacre in Finland, fights over reviews and souls, and bad news for graduates.

10 Mediawatch
Philosophy and philosophers in the mass media.

11 Word of Mouse
Luciano Floridi's regular look at the world wide web.

13 Philosophy has its day
Antonia Macaro finds a global celebration a little too self-congratulatory.

Thoughts

18 The Interview
T. M. Scanlon talks about the centrality of relationships to morality.

26 Letter from... Hong Kong
Steve Palmquist on where money meets metaphysics.

29 The TPM Essay
Jonathan Ree on philosophy as an art.

38 Engines of Thought
Natasha McCarthy on the philosophy of engineering.

44 Sci-Phi
Mathew Iredale's column on science and philosophy.

47 Provocations
Michael LaBossiere on the morality of mercenaries.

49 Challenging Socrates
Emily Wilson asks if the secular saint of philosophy should be taken off his pedestal.

55 Head to head: Humanism
Tim Crane and Peter Cave clash over the merits of humanism.

Forum - Free Speech and Its Limits

64 Ramin Jahanbegloo
After his release from prison in Iran, the dissident philosopher talks about the possibility of dialogue.

71 Legalising Drugs
Michael Huemmer argues that prohibition has intellectually and pragmatically failed.

76 Defending ID
Steve Fuller explains why he doesn't have to agree with the people he has chosen to speak up for.

82 You're Screwing the Planet
James Garvey argues that you are not doing nearly enough for the planet.

87 The Politics of Ignorance
Kenan Malik on why both sides of the race debate have got it wrong.

94 The Price of Free Speech
Andrew Kelly on organising an event where the speaker says something seen as racist.

The Lowdown

98 Snapshot: Giambattista Vico
The lowdown on the Neapolitan great.

101 Pop Culture
Briony Addey gets Lost.

Review

106 New Books
Reviews of a new biography of J. S. Mill, plus books by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Bernard Williams and Slavoj Zizek

117 Author Q&A
Richard Shusterman on France coming first.

119 Review of reviews
What the critics said about The Death of Socrates and A Secular Age.

Last Words

121 My Philosophy
Physicist Alan Sokal on academic trespass.

127 The Skeptic
Wendy Grossman's regular column.