Back Issues
Issue 34
December 2001 / January 2002
EDITORIAL
Science Fiction
by Tim Madigan
NEWS
British government bans criticism of religion, Jazz Philosopher Releases CD, Reid Scholars Woven Together, Gentle Jürgen says Give Peace a Chance
PHILOSOPHY & SCIENCE FICTION
Body Snatchers!: The Invasion of Philosophy
David Suits on the philosophical lessons of a cult classic.
Ethics & Interplanetary Exploration
Dan McArthur wonders how we should treat the locals...
Mary Shelley's Daughters
Susan Hollis on women science fiction writers as social commentators.
Life As Simulacrum: Stanislaw Lem's Sci-Fi
Leszek Koczanowicz on a writer whose novels explore the search for meaning within simulated realities.
OTHER ARTICLES
Heaven and Earth: An Awkward History
Mary Midgley on our changing views of our own planet, and the story they tell about the changing nature of rationality.
The World as it is in Itself Revisited
Michael Philips thinks that intelligent aliens could help us sort out the problem of what we can know, by providing a useful new point of view.
Only Joking?
Last year Laurence Goldstein stepped down from his post as head of the ever-turbulent Philosophy Department at the University of Wales Swansea, following a battery of allegations made by three of his colleagues and a complaint that he had told jokes 'with sexual overtones' at a departmental Christmas party. He, and other colleagues who left at the same time, were unwilling to continue working in a department where, for years, brutal hostility has prevailed. On the plus side, however, the experience did inspire him to write this article.
A Womb of Words
Do babies drink in language with their mothers' milk? Peter Benson surveys the startling semiotics of Julia Kristeva.
The True Believer Revisited
Tim Madigan on September 11th and on a longshoreman who understood the psychology of mass movements.
The Library of Living Philosophers: Sir Michael Dummett
by Karen Green
FORUM
The Problem of Dismissing Induction
The problem of induction, pointed out by David Hume, continues to baffle scientists and philosophers. Theo Clark explains why.
Induction: The Problem Solved
In our second contribution on the problem of induction, John Shand argues that there is no problem, because there is no such thing as an inductive argument.
INTERVIEW
Alvin Plantinga
He is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and is thought by many to be the most interesting philosopher of religion writing today. Daniel Hill asked him all about his long-awaited new book.
COLUMNS
Dear Socrates
Our celebrity columnist answers readers' questions.
Moral Moments: The Mouse That Roared
by Joel Marks
OBITUARY
David Lewis (1941-2001)
by Chris Bloor
LETTERS
Opinions on Regressive Tendencies, Marks of Progress, Emergency and Confusion, and more...
BOOKS
Ralph Blumenau devours Bryan Magee's new book about Wagner the philosophical composer, and Ken Marsalek is confronted by a bunch of Socratic starship captains in The Ethics of Star Trek.
FILMS
What happens when a playwright and a theatre director make a movie? Our film critic Thomas Wartenberg recently found out, and it led him to ponder the less obvious differences between films and plays.
SHORT STORY
Feedback
A short story by F. Russell Clampitt about what happens when the hot water bottle goes cold.