Navigator, June, 2004

Editor's Desk

In This Issue

Letters to the Editor

Feature Article:

The Problem of Animal Rights by Shawn Klein
Americans overwhelmingly support some degree of legal protection for animals, and a quarter of those polled say that animals should have the same rights as humans. What arguments have philosophers made in favor of such legislation and how well do those arguments hold up? Could a philosophy of law that started from a valid of theory of rights justify extending some protection to animals?

Review:

What Does Science Say about the Mind? by Robert Campbell
Owen Flanagan, author of The Problem of the Soul, has his heart in the right place. He wants to reject the religious view of the mind as an immaterial substance. But the scientific view, Flanagan insists, is a physicalist view and every experience is just a physical event. Despite that, Flanagan says that he believes mental processes are real. What does that mean for a physicalist? And what does it mean for free will?

Cultural Calender:

John Rennie: Enlightenment Engineer by Roger Donway
London Bridge—as every child used to know—was falling down. John Rennie was the man brought in to replace it.

Soundings

Suggested Readings on Enlightenment Thought and Action

Logbook and Sightings