Philosophy Now Forum

A cover like that would have been fun!

I find this latest issue, 117, quite boring.

In the latest issue about Envisioning Society one thing was overlooked, the infrastructure that maintains and sustains it. For instance, if a society doesn't have the sewers, the water and plumbing systems, the electricity, the air, the communications skills or the transportation capabilities, it wo...

This issue on Visions of Society recalled in me a quote Margaret Thatcher famously made, “There is no such thing as society”. We know she was wrong. But she made that remark in frustration. She was bothered by a certain element of people who believed that if things go wrong in their lives society sh...

Basically it boils down to Trust. Trust is essential to keep a society functioning properly so that it continues. The Soviet Union couldn't engender trust among it citizens because it operated deceptively and secretively, due to the fact it was an authoritarian state. It didn't trust its members to...

Society is perhaps the most complex of human undertakings. I wish PN saw it that way and that not all societies are alike. For instance, some societies are cleaner than others, more universal in concept and therefore more just. PN could have mentioned some of the external factors that have influence...

This issue of PN could have gone out on a limb and compared different societies and discussed why some do better that others. The Soviet Union also had a society. But what kind was it that allowed the Soviet state to collapse. What did it lack? Basically it boils down to Trust. Trust is essential to...

Grant Bartley writes "Think big, and think deep" about how one might envision society, how it could be changed for the better and what values could be adopted to enhance it. I am thinking of one society in particular that started off thinking big and thinking deep, the first of its kind. I...

What kind of society are we supposed to be envisioning? Human society is the most complex system in the universe. And the more complex it gets the better it functions. Complexity underwrites the advancements and progress that otherwise would not occur. Complexity brings a sophistication to society t...

I didn't read any mention of human rights in the articles about our Visions of Society. I would thing they'd be central. The magazine could have added an article on the United Nation's declaration of human rights because it did much to shape our vision of society. I'm happy to say that human rights...

The cover of this issue gives me the impression that society is seen by PN and company as a Cirque de Soleil , full of contortionists and such. I am wondering because sometimes it feels that way. I didn't read any mention of human rights in the articles about our Visions of Society. I would thing th...

Kile Jones argues that atheistic existentialism is more compelling than religious existentialism. I am sure that is truth, that "atheistic existentialism is more compelling than religious existentialism". But at the moment, with all the religious existentialism that is flexing its muscle ...

For those who don't move on beyond their own point of reference the world can be quite an unsettling and unpredictable place.

... And there are those who also predicted the occurrence of 'peek oil' years ago, which hasn't happened as predicted. ... This isn't quite right I think as the problem is we can't get the figures from the major oil producers. The thing is, not to put too fine a point on it, we have not or will in ...

"Hence, chaos theory implies that the future is not predictable based on past events, as it used to be thought to be." I think we have captured and tamed the occurrence of chaos in the world to our advantage and made things pretty predictable. However, there are those who have tried to fin...