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Philosophy Now ISSUE 90 May/June 2012

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Philosophy Now ISSUE 90 May/June 2012 philosophy from polity Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy Stephen C. Angle Wesleyan University “Rich and well-informed. There is much Achieve a solid grounding in psychotherapy and counselling skills of value here for those interested in the through combined academic, practical and experiential learning. current debates among political thinkers in or concerned with China today.” FOUNDATION COURSES IN Philip J. Ivanhoe, City University of Hong Kong PSYCHOTHERAPY & COUNSELLING Pb 978-0-7456-6130-8 £17.99 ONEYEAR FOUNDATION COURSES -AY s PAGES – One four hour class per week – Next course: September 2012 Pragmatism An Introduction INTENSIVE FOUNDATION COURSES – Condensed format; weekday and weekend courses available Michael Bacon – Upcoming 2012 courses: July-August; September-December Royal Holloway University of London Successful completion fulfils one requirement for entry to the “An engaging and engrossing introduction MA Psychotherapy & Counselling. to and overview of a rich philosophical tradition.” Robert B. Brandom, University of SCHOOL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY & COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY Pittsburgh Regent’s College London, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS Te l 020 7487 7505 Email [email protected] Web www.regents.ac.uk/spcp Pb 978-0-7456-4665-7 £16.99 The School is a member of and registering organisation with The United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP). !PRIL s PAGES Knowledge Ian Evans & Nicholas Smith University of Arizona; Lewis & Clark College “The most up-to-date introduction to the analysis of knowledge on the market. If you want to be on top of current and future trends in epistemology, read this book.” Peter Graham, University of California Riverside Pb 978-0-7456-5053-1 £15.99 -AY s PAGES Science in the 20th Century and Beyond Jon Agar Study for an MA University College London via distance learning… Superbly crafted, elegantly written, inventive and thought-provoking, the book makes an absolutely invaluable contribution through the MA Philosophy concept of the ‘working worlds’ of science.” Jeff Hughes, University of Manchester MA Applied Philosophy MA European Philosophy Hb 978-0-7456-3469-2 £30.00 -ARCH s PAGES 0300 500 1822 To order, free phone John Wiley & Sons Ltd on 0800 243407 www.tsd.ac.uk politybooks.com Philosophy Now ISSUE 90 May/June 2012 Philosophy Now, EDITORIAL & NEWS 43a Jerningham Road, 4 Plato on a Plate Rick Lewis Telegraph Hill, London SE14 5NQ 5 News in Brief United Kingdom 54 Obituary: P.K.F. Robinson Tel. 020 7639 7314 Michael O’Connor tells us about the famous Diagonalist [email protected] www.philosophynow.org PLATO (AND SOCRATES) Editor-in-Chief Rick Lewis 6 Plato: A Theory of Forms Editor Anja Steinbauer David Macintosh explains Plato’s famous idea about ideas. Assistant Editor Grant Bartley Graphic Design Grant Bartley, Anja 8 Picking a Fight With Plato Steinbauer, Rick Lewis Ed Fraser argues that Plato’s theory of knowledge is circular Online Editor Bora Dogan Film Editor Thomas Wartenberg 10 Plato’s Just State Reviews Editor Charles Echelbarger Chris Wright critiques Plato’s view of the ideal society Marketing Manager Sue Roberts Administration Ewa Stacey, Heidi 14 Addicts, Mythmakers and Philosophers Pintschovius Alan Brody considers the Socratic explanation of addiction Advertising Team 18 Plato’s Neurobiology Jay Sanders, Ellen Stevens PLATO comes alive! [email protected] Elizabeth Laidlaw sees parallels with modern theories of the brain UK Editors pages 6-19 Rick Lewis, Anja Steinbauer, OTHER ARTICLES Bora Dogan, Grant Bartley 20 US Editors Galahad versus Odysseus Dr Timothy J. Madigan (St John Fisher As our token concession to the Olympics, Emrys Westacott 2010 College), Prof. Charles Echelbarger contrasts honour and strategic thinking in sport. (SUNY), Prof. Raymond Pfeiffer (Delta College), Prof. Jonathan Adler (CUNY) 26 The Ethics of Tax ORPORATION Contributing Editors C Richard Baron asks why & when it is ethical to pay tax. Alexander Razin (Moscow State Univ.) ISNEY UK Editorial Advisors 29 Reason as a Universal Constant © D Piers Benn, Chris Bloor, Gordon Giles, Stuart Greenstreet reasonably considers C.S. Lewis’s argument Paul Gregory, John Heawood, Kate Leech that the ability to reason is not natural, so must be supernatural US Editorial Advisors FILM IMAGE Prof. Raymond Angelo Belliotti, Toni 32 A Brief Life: Jean-Jacques Rousseau Vogel Carey, Prof. Rosalind Ekman Graeme Garrard condenses the life of the infamous philosophe Ladd, Prof. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, ONDERLAND W Prof. Harvey Siegel REVIEWS Cover Design by Chris Madden, based LICE IN on classical busts of Plato & Socrates. A 42 Book: The Moral Landscape Printed by Graspo CZ, a.s., Philosophical Wonder by Sam Harris, reviewed by Bill Meacham Pod Sternberkem 324, 76302 Zlin, Alice in Wonderland, 44 Book: The Philosopher & The Wolf Czech Republic page 46 by Mark Rowlands, reviewed by Greg Linster UK newstrade distribution through: 46 Film: Alice in Wonderland Comag Specialist Division, Heather Rivera discovers a wonderful underworld of feminism Tavistock Works, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX REGULARS Tel. 01895 433800 35 Food For Thought: Emily Brontë – Philosopher U.S. & Canadian bookstores through: Tim Madigan wants moor! Disticor Magazine Distribution Services 695 Westney Road S., Unit 14, 36 Letters to the Editor Ajax, Ontario L1S 6M9 39 Question of the Month: How Does Language Work? Tel. (905) 619 6565 You can understand how you can understand our readers’ The opinions expressed in this magazine answers to this question even as you read them. do not necessarily reflect the views of 48 the editor or editorial board of Tallis In Wonderland: A Hasty Report From A Tearing Hurry Philosophy Now. Raymond Tallis is just in time for a column on timing. 52 Ethical Episodes: ‘A’ Is For ‘Assumption’ Philosophy Now is published by Anja Publications Ltd Joel Marks re-examines some dangerous assumptions. ISSN 0961-5970 Jean-Jacques FICTION Back Issues p.50 6 My Mommy’s Cookies Subscriptions p.51 Rousseau is 300! Courtney Gibbons tells us the true source of Plato’s inspiration on 28th June. See page 32 May/June 2012 G Philosophy Now 3 Editorial Plato on a Plate he bare facts are these. Plato was a wrestler. The name and is widely regarded as the first university in the Western Tby which we know him was his ring name, meaning world. One of Plato’s students there was Aristotle. ‘Broad Shoulders’. At some point he fell in with a scruffy and Plato led a lively and adventurous life, which included talkative old fellow called Socrates. Socrates and his friends being appointed advisor to the tyrant of Sicily, being captured used to gather in the Agora – the marketplace in Athens – to by pirates and being sold as a slave. (Fortunately a benefactor discuss philosophy. Socrates himself claimed to know nothing, spotted him in the slave auction, bought him and set him but made a habit of questioning prominent citizens about free). In his dialogues Plato discusses many of the central their opinions, dialogues which often ended with his victims questions of philosophy – What can we know? How should hopelessly contradicting themselves or otherwise looking like we live? How should society be organised? What is love? idiots. This made him about as popular as you would expect. What is courage? Is God good? Plato’s dialogues are studded Socrates called himself the ‘gadfly’, stinging the Athenians so with brilliant thought experiments and arresting insights, and they wouldn’t fall asleep. He became a well-known figure, the are certainly among the greatest classics of world literature. subject of a satirical play by Aristophanes (The Clouds). Then His theories became so powerfully influential that the 20th Athens lost a war to Sparta and a short, grim period of century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once described oligarchical rule (the Thirty Tyrants) followed before the whole of subsequent philosophy as “footnotes to Plato”. democracy was restored. However, in an atmosphere of Despite this, it has somehow taken us twenty years to get recrimination the Athenians searched for the causes of their around to having an issue of Philosophy Now dedicated to downfall, and some blamed Socrates for having undermined Plato. There is certainly plenty to discuss. We won’t get into the moral basis of society. Socrates had a pretty good civic the whole subject of which of the views discussed originated record – not only was he a decorated war hero, but in the with Socrates and which with Plato. Plato’s most famous time of the Thirty Tyrants he had shown his integrity by theories and thought experiments are contained in his refusing to participate in the arrest of a fellow citizen – but an dialogue, the Republic. As a blueprint for an ideal society it aristocratic pupil of his had had close connections to the strikes most modern eyes as pretty totalitarian (see Chris oligarchical regime, and afterwards Socrates’ enemies used Wright’s article on page 10), but its arguments about justice, this to taint him by association. In a public trial Socrates was the nature of knowledge, and the metaphysical basis of reality found guilty of ‘inventing new gods and corrupting the youth’ are powerful and philosophically acute. It contains one of and sentenced to death. His friends urged him to flee, but he Plato’s key ideas, the Theory of Forms, which David refused, and was executed in 399BC. Macintosh explains on page 6. It also contains Plato’s most Socrates’ enraged followers reacted with one of the most famous thought experiment, the Allegory of the Cave. Edward successful literary protests in history: several of them wrote Fraser argues that Plato’s theory in the Meno about how we dialogues in which Socrates was the main protagonist. It was acquire (or rather, recollect) knowledge is circular. The two as if they wanted to show that Socrates’ detractors had failed following articles concern ways in which Plato’s dialogues are to silence his voice or his persistent, irritating questioning.
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